Who I Really Am
by Phantom Ice
Summary: Maddie Fenton has had enough. Her son, Danny Fenton, is becoming a bigger problem then she can handle, and she's close to just giving up. Will she be able to see the truth soon enough to save her son... from himself?
1. Ignorance

Maddie Fenton was tired. She hadn't been able to fall asleep until three A.M. the last morning and was now up again a measly four hours later, working on some old ghost gun that had some major flaw, for some reason it refused to calibrate to harm only ghosts, and had given Jack a nasty burn/bullet wound on his left arm, which was why he wasn't here helping. That wasn't why she was up early, though.

Maddie had woken up early in order to make sure her son, Danny, was off to school on time, she had been doing that a lot lately, yet he always seemed to be intercepted somewhere between home and school no matter how early he left. However, not even that was why she was tired, not really. Maddie was tired of the façade of... _normalness_. She was tired of pretending that her family didn't have problems. Tired of watching ghosts slowly ripping her family apart (it seemed she couldn't see that it was her and her husband's obsession with ghosts that was doing that, and not the ghosts themselves, well unless you count Vlad, but she had even less of an idea about that...). She was tired of the most evil of those ectoplasmic entities that traipsed around their town like he belonged here, Danny Phantom. Yet, these were all minor, because most of all, she was tired of the hiding and the lies. The deceit and the distrust. The nervous glances and lack of eye contact. The bad grades and ditching classes. The truth of the matter, was that she was tired of her son and his irresponsible immature behavior.

Maddie realized he must have gotten it from his father, but even Jack knew when to stop and be serious, Danny very obviously didn't. The school was constantly calling and sending letters about his failing grades, and he was in serious danger of flunking the eleventh grade. For God's sake he had a one point eight grade point average! A 1.8! He shamelessly falls asleep in class, if he bothers to show up at all, and always gets home after curfew. No matter what punishment they dished out, he continued to disobey them, and he always was sneaking out even when he was grounded. Despite all this, Maddie had only come to the point of these desperate thoughts and revelations that very morning...

* * *

Six o'clock that morning:

"Daniel James Fenton!". The day had started just like any other, with a call from some enraged authority figure ranting on about Danny's misbehavior. This time it was the hospital. Apparently, the night before, a roughly fourteen to fifteen years old dark haired Caucasian male had been found, unconscious, in a pile of debris from a building that collapsed in on itself during a ghost fight... at one in the morning. The child was rushed to emergency care, but even though the paramedic had sworn he had seen part of a bone poking out of the adolescent's arm just above the elbow, and had in fact been treating it on the way to the hospital, there was no proof that the bone had been broken recently. Their was a hairline crack apparent in the X-rays, but that was nothing of concern. The more major problem came from the fact the boy was in low hypothermic temperatures, and should most defiantly be dead. All attempts to heat him up from his frigid temperatures only seemed to make things worse. He had no form of ID on him, not surprising since he was only a kid.

Later that day, the nurses came to check on him, only to find him to be gone, the room trashed, and the security cameras to have fried circuits. Even later, upon watching the rolls of film that caught the boy being wheeled into the room, one of the nurses who wasn't there originally, in fact she only happened to be passing by at that very moment, for that is the extent of Danny Fenton's luck (for of course that was the boy in question) would say,

"I know that boy!" and in fact she did. She vaguely recognized the ghost hunters' son from the park that day a horrible ghost had appeared out of nowhere and fired a glowing green blast at her five year old son where he was playing in a sandbox. She had only had time to scream in horror, when something, or rather someone, threw himself in front of her son, taking the full impact of the blast. The young man had then gotten up and quickly grabbed her crying baby boy and ran him into her arms. She couldn't even thank him before he was hit by another green blast and went flying into the bushes, then Danny Phantom showed up and took care of the ghost.

Next, a large white and green RV had rolled up and began shooting at the Phantom who quickly disappeared. Out of the RV came two people clad in bright jumpsuits, who the woman, and the rest of the town, knew to be the Fenton's. After deciding their was no more threat from a ghost, the ghost hunters looked around and seemed to notice a certain two people in the crowd.

"Sam! Tucker!... Where's Danny?" The woman asked the two teenagers, although something in the way she said it suggested that it was more of a demand than a question. Then from behind the Nurse there came a resigned call of,

"Right here, mom," and the boy that had possibly saved her son's life walked up to the hunters, dirty skid marks from being thrown across the ground etched into his shirt.

"Daniel! You know you're grounded! Coming to the park to 'play around' with your friends was incredibly disrespectful!" Mrs. Fenton then pushed the boy into the RV and they were off before the nurse could even think to thank the boy for what he had done. On the other hand, she did wonder how Mrs. Fenton had not seemed to notice the large scrape on the boys arm from the same origins of the large skid mark on his shirt...

That had been nearly a year ago, but something like that was not something a mother was going to forget anytime quickly, and so she was able identify the boy as one Daniel Fenton, later confirmed by Mayor Masters himself who happened to be in the hospital at that very convenient time, of pure coincidence and not at all due to the fact that he happened to know very much about the condition a certain vampire looking ghost had left the poor boy in and most defiantly not because he had been watching him invisibly for the past few hours.

Obviously, Maddie Fenton didn't know any of that. All she knew was that Amity Park Hospital was calling at six in the morning asking, very angrily, where her son had been between one to three AM of the same morning. The hospital said he wouldn't need to come in, there wasn't anything really wrong with him (not if he could do that much damage to a hospital room) besides a large number odd (but old) wounds covering his chest and back, but the family would be required to pay for all the destroyed equipment. A grand total of $8,364! That was what lead to Maddie (Jack had obviously already been injured at this point, and needed his rest) calling down her son on that lovely morning in a fit of anger. Even more angered when the large bags under his eyes, dirty street cloths he wore instead of PJs, and slight limp in his step proved that her son had in deed been anywhere but home, and was not even close to ready for school yet.

"The hospital just called!" she said, barely containing the need to shout. His widening eyes, suddenly wide awake, dispelled any doubt she had had about his innocence (or rather lack thereof). "They want us to pay over eight thousand dollars for damages you caused to one of their rooms!" Now she was shouting. He didn't even respond except to stare down at his shoes and take it all.

_Yes, Mom, lets not focus on the fact I was in the hospital at one in the morning, completely unresponsive,lets focus on the fact that an apparently injured fifteen year old boy with no energy left somehow managed to break thousands of dollars worth of sturdy medical equipment in the space of thirty minutes without a single person hearing him. It's not like a certain frootloop with the power to overshadow multiple people at once attacked me and then kidnapped me from the hospital, dropped me in the middle of the forest, short circuited my powers, and then forced me to walk back home just for his own twisted pleasure._ Danny sighed when he realized that, in reality, the first option was actually much more viable than the second. That was just the rule of his life, he supposed, the truth was to unbelievable to even be considered.

Maddie continued shouting for a while, but she got tired of his lack of response and then angrily shouted "I don't know how you can be so careless, irresponsible, and down right selfish sometimes Danny!" His fists clenched in anger, not that she noticed. He hated it, this feeling that came over him every time his teachers and parents called him those things. They knew nothing about being carful, how many beings did they have constantly trying to kill them daily? They knew nothing about responsibility, how many times had they been forced to drop every lingering bit of their very humanity to protect everything they cared about? Most of all, they knew nothing of selflessness, Danny lost his life in that portal one year ago, and he never got it back. He gave up what was left of his life, he gave up his hopes and dreams, all to protect the people who hated, mocked, and belittled him, but were somehow still considered innocent. How many times had they walked the line between life and death? How many times had they given up themselves just to do the right thing?

"I'm very disappointed in you and I can't accept what you have been doing lately, Danny, and if you don't change into the son you used to be,we're going to have to send you away to boot camp or something to take care of this for good" she said calmly, again totally unaware of the devastating effect those very words had on her child as his fists unclenched and he bit his lip to keep back tears. He could imagine her saying close to those exact words to him in a different situation... 'I'm disgusted by you, and I can't accept you for what you have become, and you've changed to much to be called our son anymore, ghost, leave before we send you do some lab somewhere or maybe take care of you for good,'. Lately, Danny wasn't as sure as he used to be that that wouldn't be his parents reaction to his secret. After all, instead of making things better between his parents and Phantom as he had been hoping to do all those months ago as part of some broken plan, he's only been able to turn them against Danny Fenton as well. What hope does he have of them accepting his ghost form if they only just barely put up with his human form anymore? Nothing was worth it anymore, it was times like these Danny wished he would have just died in that portal... Maddie, still oblivious to the dark path her son's thoughts were beginning to veer, just continued to look on with disappointment at her seemingly unresponsive child. Really he was anything but as deep pits of despair and self loathing etched into his mind, her words cutting deeper than she could ever imagine.

"I'm sorry, Mom," he was apologizing for so much more than she would ever know, even if he knew it was pointless. To his surprise, his mothers eyes seemed to soften, and then widened in alarm as she remembered some troubling piece of information the doctors had given her, 'We did find a large number of abrasions and burns covering his torso, but they were old wounds, scars from cuts acquired over time, nothing to worry about. Now about that payment...'. What would her son had gotten scars from?

"I'm just glad your safe, sweetie," Maddie sighed. Danny's eyes brightened in response,it had been a long time since he's gotten a positive reaction out of his parents... "Now, let me see your injuries." She ordered. This time his eyes widened in clutched the red jacket he was wearing tighter and took a step back,

"No, it's okay, I'm fine, mom, really," he insisted, but if he was honest with himself, it was only halfhearted, maybe if she saw, she would finally find out... or even better, she would finally see him for who he really was again...

It was for those reasons Maddie was able to pry the jacket and shirt over the feebly struggling teenager relatively easily. The gasp of alarm that left her lips only further served to add awkwardness to the following silence as Maddie looked over her son's body.

It was covered in fresh purple bruises and small cuts, over old yellowing older bruises and scaring over cuts. More alarming were the ones that were obviously scars, and would probably never go away. On his stomach their was a large burn, as if someone had recently tried to see how his body would react to holding a small fire to his stomach, their was a similar mark on his left shoulder, who could do something like that?(she was blissfully unaware that the larger burn was actually caused by a lucky hit from one of their Fenton Bazookas when Danny had been forced to jump in front of it to block his parents from an attack going the opposite direction, one hit his back,the other his stomach) On the left side of his neck their were two smaller marks, as if someone had slammed two metal prongs of electricity into it (courtesy of the 'Plasmius Maximus', not that she would know that). On his right arm, starting at the shoulder and falling all the way to his elbow was a longer deeper cut obviously made by a knife purposely slashing thought the skin, it was very very recent, considering it still had bits of blood seeping over the dried clotting blood. The worst was a similar gash that ran the entire diagonal length of his chest from shoulder to hips, it was obviously old and was defiantly a scar that would never heal. Maddie had taken more than a sufficient amount of anatomy classes, and she noticed with dread that an inch lower or more to either side, and the knife that had caused a cut like that would have hit one of his lungs. Short in short, she was completely horrified.

Danny continued to cringe under his mothers gaze, but was secretly happy about her horrified expression, it meant she cared, and she was finally going to ask what had been happening to him,and he would tell her. All she had to do was ask, he silently begged her to just ask. That's not exactly what happened.

"Danny! I don't know what you've gotten yourself into, but you have to stop right now! Look at yourself! Whoever did all this wanted to hurt you!" She shouted. All the hope drained out of Danny at that, and he resisted the urge to say _'duh, they only shout it to the world'_. Instead Danny turned to go back upstairs and change into normal school cloths, however, at the last minute a hand wrapped around the wrist of his left arm. He cringed at the memory of the bone that had been mere hours before poking out of his skin. He very easily recalled the pain of, when no medical staff was looking, he turned the tip of the bone intangible and forcing it back into his arm. He fused it with the bone it had separated from using intangibility, but that wasn't real healing, and was only to fool the x-rays. The bone hurt beyond anything he could comprehend with every movement of his arm as the two halve grated into each other, his ghost healing currently more than occupied on all other parts of his body.

Needless to say, having someone tugging violently on the makeshift set did nothing to curb the blinding pain that had made him pass out the second time, before anyone noticed he even woke up in the first place. He could barely keep from screaming in pain as she tugged him backwards leaving the arm feeling as if it had been dipped in acid. He strategically escaped her hold at the same time she whispered,

"You've gotten yourself into something nasty, Danny, it needs to stop,". He couldn't get away fast enough. She had not once asked him what had happened, what was wrong, did she already see him as a hopeless cause?

As her son disappeared up the stairs, she whispered, knowing as a parent it would be horrible to say it to Danny's face, "Jazz was never such a disappointment,". How was she supposed to know the boy in question had super enhanced hearing? How was she to know he could pick up her soft whisper as if she had leaned in and said it directly into his ear? How was she supposed to know that those words finally sealed his decision on something he had been contemplating for a very long time...

Maddie sighed as she remembered that morning, now it was around five pm, and Danny, who was obviously grounded, had (surprise surprise) yet to return from school. Maddie didn't know how to feel, annoyed, angry, or extremely worried. She could vividly recall every horrifying scar on her son as he walked away up the stairs.

"What's been happening to you, Danny?" she asked to the empty lab. The question was to late to do any good, if only she had asked it a few hours before...


	2. Listen, Please?

Maddie tapped her foot impatiently against the cold tile of the entryway. She paused, glanced at her watch, looked at the door, and continued to tap. _Tap, tap, tap, tick, tick,tick, tap, tap, tap, glance, tick, tick, tap_. It was ten thirty at night and,once again, her son had failed to walk thought the door. _Sigh, tick, tap, tick, tap, tap, glance, sigh, tap, tap_. A sigh of relief washed through Maddie when the latch finally clicked, but she quickly molded her face into an impassive glare when Danny walked through the door. For some reason, she was convinced strictness was the way to get through to him, when, really, just seeing that look of relief on her face after knowing he was safe might have been enough at this point to have Danny spilling his guts in seconds. However, all Danny could see on his mothers face when he dragged his broken leg through the door was impassive disappointment. Despite this he almost spilled his secret anyway, he opened his mouth, and instead of going with some crackpot excuse, started,

"Mom, I need–"

"I don't want to hear it, Daniel,"

_'You to understand'_ he finished the sentence in his head.

"Please, just–" He tried again out loud.

"No, I don't have time for this," she once again interrupted.

_'listen to me,'_ another unsaid ending.

"Mom, I'm –"

"Up to your room right now, Daniel James Fenton!"

_'half dead,' he would say, and she would look at him with worry in her eyes,_

_'What do you mean you're half dead!?' She would pause halfway through her sentence to ask the question, horror in her eyes._

_'I'm half-ghost. It happened a little less than a year ago, back when the portal wasn't working...' And he would tell her everything. 'Mom, I'm Danny Phantom,' he would finish, and she would look down at him and start to cry._

_'I'm so sorry, Danny, I should have helped you, I should have known,' she would pull him into a bone crushing hug._

_'I'm sorry to, Mom, I should have told you from the beginning, but that doesn't matter, because you're listening now, you're finally listening, you can finally accept me for who I really am...'_

Danny sighed at the daydream, instead of pulling him into that hug, his mother impassively stood in front of him, hand angrily motioning to the stairs. He wanted to tell her, he really did, but she said it herself _'I don't want to hear it, Daniel'_. As he moved away, Maddie didn't notice the way his right leg limply dragged along behind him. She didn't notice the way he winced every time he was forced to put his weight on it, she didn't notice as he looked up at the staircase with unmasked dread, teeth biting against his bottom lip to the point of drawing blood as he made his way up. Most importantly, most importantly Maddie didn't notice the tears that slowly and steadily made their way down his face, tears that had absolutely nothing to do with physical pain.

* * *

_**A/N:**__ Oops, short chapter, my bad._

_Wow, Maddie really isn't warming herself up to anyone, is she? Maybe someone should tell her a good way to figure out what's wrong with your child is to actually, you know, listen to them. I guess we can't completely blame her though, she's so used to half-lies and crackpot excuses to expect the truth anymore._


	3. Frustration

Maddie felt like screaming in frustration. It was twelve midnight and, after giving up trying to find the Fenton Ghost Gun she had been trying to fix earlier (it had mysteriously disappeared after Danny got home), Maddie had decided to check in on her, supposedly, sleeping child. Sure enough, despite all warnings, punishments, or precautions, Danny had gone MIA. She didn't understand it, Maddie had had to tell Jazz to go outside and have fun when she had been living at home, and the mother was sure it wasn't any different now that she was at boarding school, but Danny... Maddie was currently standing in the doorway of the empty room, shooting mental daggers at the bed that should house her son. She didn't even understand how it was possible for him to have snuck out! They installed bars over his window ages ago, and the alarm on the front door was still active! Of course, this wasn't the first time this happened, Jack and her had spent countless hours on countless nights waiting at front of the door for Danny's return, only to find him sleeping soundly in bed next time they went to check on him. Jack was quick to blame this phenomenon on ghosts, Maddie was a bit more practical, after all, Danny was terrified of ghosts, he would never have anything to do with them. This time, Maddie reasoned, she would be smarter about it. She would wait for Danny right in his room, he had to come back eventually... Right?

* * *

_**A/N: **__I finished my English report early, which means more time for writing, but it seems all you guys get is another ridiculously short chapter. Oops and sorry again. I promise the next one will be longer, it was actually supposed to be the story, and everything I wrote so far is s kind of prefix, if you will. So the next chapter will be longer and might even be the conclusion, so... there. P.S. Guess who's birthday it is. ;-) Where is my ghost cake?_


	4. Christmas Comes Early

Danny felt absolutely pathetic. There was no other was to describe his current position, he decided. A ghost that had lost the will to live. Ironic, really. He was sure anyone who he told would just laugh in his face. He was sure anyone who saw him, even not knowing the story, would agree with his assessment of patheticness as well. Currently he was in his ghost form sitting in some corner alley, arms hugging his knees tightly and head limply hanging in between.

A month ago Skulker had kicked him into this alley right before Valerie showed up and blasted Skulker into the ghost zone, and Danny lost the will to leave. For the next few hours he had just sat in that alley in a position very much like the one he held now, just letting the darkness dawn on him. Since then, he came here often whenever he was... deciding. He knew his trembling shoulders and tear stained face were just the picture of pathetic. He was pathetic, he was useless, he was the single biggest lie he told himself. To think that he used to see himself as a hero, someone who helped others, when really all he did was cause the pain. He remembered the words of the ghost he had just finished battling._ 'You're nothing, no one really cares about you, they care about your powers. That goth girl? She likes you because you're a freak, and she loves the abnormal. Your parents? They're after that part of you that makes you different, they want to destroy you because you're different. The rest of the town that hails you as a hero? Well, you have first hand experience to know how they treat you without those powers, they hate you without them. Actually, come to think of it, they hate you anyway._

Of all the times for Spectra of all people, urm, ghosts, to show up.

Sure, he knew she feed you anything she could to feed off your misery, but the fact remained that she didn't distort the truth all that much. Just because what she said made you feel horrible, didn't mean it wasn't true. Everything she had said to him was true. A fight that should have taken ten minutes ended up taking half an hour, all because he could barely keep it together long enough to concentrate his powers. He had just barely gotten the two of them, Spectra and Bertrand that is, into the thermos before he was racing towards this ally, a trail of silver tears leaving a glistening trail in the air behind him. An artist might even have called the sene beautiful, he knew a lot of people who would find his pain, if not exactly beautiful, then at the very least pleasurable.

A silent, for he could suffer only in silence, sob raked his shivering body and that brightly glowing ghostly aura, which had been dimming steadily over the past few months, lost another bit of brightness. The light that came off him after the accident had been enough to light up a warehouse at midnight, now it wasn't even enough to be a nightlight. Just another thing he couldn't do, he supposed. He unwrapped his arms from his legs, and instead rested his elbows on his knees, hands fisting in his hair, he pulled on it until tears of physical pain came to his eyes, and still he didn't stop. The physical pain was good, it meant he couldn't think as much about the rest, but it didn't erase it completely.

_Useless_

_Loser_

_Monster_

The light irritation that came with pulling on his hair couldn't possibly compare with the realization that everything he was trying to protect would be better off without him. That everything he ever loved did nothing but hate him in return. In the next second he was consumed in sudden anger. Why didn't they care for him the way he cared for them? Why did they hate him? Why didn't they care or listen? Why couldn't they see him for who, and not what, he was? Why didn't pulling his hair hurt more?!

Danny stood with a scream of rage and turned to the ally wall. Next thing he knew rubble exploded out of the wall he had just punched. He did it again. The wall was thick, and only little chips of brick flew out every time he punched it. He couldn't stop the tears, but at least he could give himself something else to cry about as he let his mind be consumed by rage and pain. Every time his fist punched into the wall he could feel little pieces of rock pinch through his gloves, he could feel the impact shiver through his body, he felt it as, halfway through, his gloves finally ripped and he could feel the hard wall against his bare knuckles as they split open. Glowing green blood spilled out of the wound, but rather than act as the instinctual warning it was supposed to, the blood only served to remind him of his freakiness. What kind of monster bleed a toxic substance anyway?

Despite all the pain, the initial shock was wearing off, and he was starting to think about why he was punching this wall in the first place. He was suddenly desperate to stop the thoughts. That's when the sudden idea hit him that this would hurt a lot more if he were human, and so the dim white rings formed around his waist and the green that had been covering him promptly flushed to a sinister darkened red as it pooled around the floor. His new, less resilient, human body was bombarded with a wave of sudden pain to the point he could barley see or think, but wasn't that the point? He welcomed the pain from his hands as it was sent to his brain, begging him to stop, but he didn't want to stop. He knew that this pain could never compare to the pain that would come flooding the moment he stopped this merciless bombardment on his physical self.

Then why, if the pain was supposed to protect him, did the thoughts still leak out? _Freak_, punch, _monster_, punch, _loser_, punch, _useless_, punch, _pathetic_... Why wasn't the pain helping anymore?! He stopped punching the wall and silently screamed again as he wrapped his arms around himself. Turning back into Phantom in order to try to get rid of some of the emotional pain (his ghost half didn't seem to process emotions as easily as his human half, and sometimes gave him the ability to feel strangely numb), he clawed his hands into his shoulders until five perfect little crescent shaped rips were in each side of his jumpsuit. He didn't stop, pressing harder and harder until little droplets of glowing green blood were pooling over.

Another advantage of the ghost half, ghosts had open circulatory systems, and so he bleed much much easily and more freely as Phantom. His blood gave him a strange comfort, while it was true the toxic glowing green color reminded him of his pathetic uselessness, watching it come out of him was almost enough to trick himself into thinking that he was going through enough pain now for there not to be any left if he decided to stop.

He bit his lip, closed his eyes, and angled his head towards the sky as he slowly dragged his fingers down his arm, the nails leaving five messy, and more importantly painful, cuts behind under the torn sleeves of the jumpsuit. The blood seemed to pool on them for a while, before flowing down to the ground. It wasn't enough. Tears, finally relating a bit, if not completely, to physical pain, flowed freely now as he mercilessly clawed at his arms, letting the stinging feeling of his skin being forced open wash over him. His recently broken arm just made it all the better as his head could scream only 'pain', to muddled now to tell the difference between emotional and physical. He felt the rings form, turning him human when, because of 'blood' loss he no longer had the energy to support his ghost form.

"No," he whispered when bits of the pain on his arms faded and any green ectoplasmic blood caught on his body turned a dark maroon. "No, no, no," he cried as he felt the less severe wounds that hadn't been made on his human form close up. There were still the cuts on his arm, but they were to shallow now, and his red human blood refused to pool in the same sick way his green one did. It seemed almost... normal. He quickly snapped open his eyes and looked down at the plentiful puddles of glowing green blood that hadn't been caught in the transformation rings, and they quickly reminded him that he was anything but.

"No," he shook his head, "no, no, no" the volume increased with each proclamation as he began tearing at the human flesh as well. Ripping at the collar of his shirt and tearing it to shreds as clawed at his shoulders and arms, shaking his head as if that would help rid him of the real pain sneaking up on him. Why did his human form insist on such a clear understanding of emotions? The red blood suddenly poured out much more easily as if he had hit some sort of dam, and the dizzy feeling accompanying blood loss snuck into his head.

His body suddenly let out, he had no more energy, no more rage as he was consumed with only more pathetic sadness. His knees gave out and he was kneeling facing the wall. He used the last of his energy to change into Phantom once again, not to alleviate the pain this time, but just to feel a bit closer to death. The fresh red blood caught in the rings became a glowing green, his body not finding any source of reprieve in the change. Completely spent his forehead fell forward against the sticky red and green brick, colored blood dancing together, but not quite mixing, as it fell slowly towards the Earth. The gooey feeling of his cool ectoplasmic blood pouring back out over the watery sticky feeling of his warm red blood was opposing, and Danny had a sudden urge to laugh at the sensation,

"Looks... like... Christmas," he pointlessly, and with much difficulty, laughed in between tears, thinking about how much he couldn't stand the holiday.

_Oh, God, I'm losing it_. He thought to himself with a smile, but he couldn't bring himself to care. The dizziness was taking over, he had lost more blood than a human ever should. _Maybe, if I'm lucky, I won't wake up_, the humor in his thoughts would send shivers up anybody's spine. Then to him there was only darkness and pain, somehow coexisting, for none got rid of the other, as his body slumped to the side, his ghostly aura flickering to nothing like a candle being blown out, but not turning back to human, and landing with a sick splat in a large puddle of his own duel-colored blood.

* * *

_**A/N: **__... sick. And not in the good way. Just plain sick._

_Wow, that came out... different than planned. He was just supposed to be thinking about his decision. Guess his condition is a lot worse than I thought. Poor Danny. Will he survive? Is he even still alive? What has Maddie been doing? Is she any closer to figuring out Danny's secret? Even if she does find out, is she already to late? I already know, but I'm not telling, guess you'll just have to wait and see for yourselves..._


	5. It's Always About Ghosts

**_What! all that time of waiting just for this short non-informative excuse for a chapter? Afraid so_**

* * *

An hour after deciding to stay in her son's room, Maddie was very board. Then, looking around for something to do, she suddenly got an idea she's ashamed to say she hadn't thought of half an hour ago. Maybe Danny's room could tell her what was wrong with her son (strange that she never thought that maybe her son himself could tell her what was wrong with her son), and so she started to search accordingly. She got up off the bed and headed towards his desk. On top there wasn't much but some loose papers, pens, pencils, and blank worksheets. (Hopefully those weren't due tomorrow... ya, right). Maddie opened some drawers, the first few were filled with... Ghost hunting supplies? Curiously Maddie picked up some of the metal inventions. There were some wrist-rays, laser-lipsticks, a Jack-o-nine tails, and a whole drawer dedicated to Fenton Thermoses. She found that last one odd, considering they didn't even work, but she was more curious about the fact that any of the equipment was there in the first place. Was it possible mellow non-confrontational Danny Fenton was actually interested in hunting ghosts? Perhaps he wasn't as indifferent as he pretended to be... actually, now that she thought about it, in the past year or so Danny had started to pay much closer attention when she or Jack started explaining a new invention, but that was usually followed by him quickly running out of the house with some half formed excuse.

It made Maddie proud for a moment to think that at least one of their children might follow in their footsteps, but that pride soon turned to worry. Was that Danny's problem, was he chasing ghosts? Maddie shook her head, she simply couldn't imagine her small, clumsy, shy baby boy chasing after anything... but that didn't mean ghost's weren't the problem. Was it possible her son was being hurt by ghosts? What if the ghosts were after him for being the son of ghost hunters?! It was very possible he was being forced to defend himself against malicious spirits! Oh Danny, her baby! Was it her fault he was getting into trouble? Maddie again shook her head at the thought, it was ridiculous, she would know if ghosts were targeting any of her family members (right, of corse she would, how could she miss anything sooooo obvious, *snicker*). Dismissing her thoughts, Maddie moved on to the next few drawers. First-aid supplies: band-aids, gauze, antibiotics, burn cream, and oddly enough, needles and injections that Maddie didn't really know what they were doing with the supplies, little did she know those were actually ecto-dejecto and other ectoplasmic based 'weapons' of Jack's that Danny found to be more helpful than hurtful. All the first aid supplies honestly scared her. She remembered Danny's cuts and bruises, and know she finds out he has three whole drawers dedicated to treating things like that?! He obviously expected to be hurt, and that scared Maddie greatly. She picked up one needle and peeled back the paper wrapper to study the contents more carefully. It wasn't very hard to figure out what was inside when it was glowing and green!

"Ectoplasm!?" She exclaimed in surprise (Still ecto-dejecto, not completely concentrated ectoplasm, but the basic concept is the same). She quickly examined the rest of the bottles to find at least half of them filled with the toxic substance. Extremely alarmed she picked up anything even faintly green and stuffed it into her pocket (otherwise known as hammer space). Maddie didn't know what ectoplasmic injections were doing in her son's room, but the last thing she needed was for him to accidentally inject one and get ectoplasm poisoning. Everyone knows the glowing green substance is toxic to humans, even in small doses. That brought her back to the question of why Danny even had this, and mixed in with his first aid supplies no less! She was having a very hard time telling herself that whatever was happening had nothing to do with ghosts. This held up as Maddie looked around the room more carefully than ever, only to find damaged and pulled apart ghost weapons, ripped up pieces of gauze, and scrapes of failed tests. The last she was well aware of, the rest just put her on edge.

"Danny, what are you getting herself into?" She asked in desperation, walking over to the bed and plopping herself down in temporary defeat. She didn't know what to do anymore. She rested her arms on her knees, and put her head in her hands, running them through her hair. She fisted her hands around the short thick clumps, sighing in aggravation. He just wasn't listening! That statement is what is known as irony, but she didn't know that, it seems there's a lot Maddie doesn't know when it comes to her half-ghost son. Again sighing, Maddie picked up a strange silver cube lying on Danny's bed and fiddled with it in her hands.

"I need some fresh air," she suddenly announced to thin air. She decided she could go for a walk around the park and then pass by the Nasty Burger to check for Danny. That boy had a lot of explaining to do.

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_**A/N**: Next up a bit on Sam and Tucker (it wouldn't make sense for them not to notice Danny was in a bad place psychologically, the used to spend ever waking minute together), and then back to Danny's body. Will Maddie find it? What will she do? Could their be a better research tool for a ghost hunter than an unresponsive ghost?_

_I know it's not much, but **review**, please?_


	6. Psych

_No Internet or any form of technological communication for the past week! It was horrible, on the other hand, it tried give me time to write, and all I have to do is type out the chapters that I've already written. unfortunately, that could take a while, I have no patience for typing something that's already written, whatever, at least I have this to show:_

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Tucker sprayed the soda out of his mouth directly at a horrified Sam, and then proceeded to fall onto the floor tears in his eyes. Sam just rolled her eyes.

"Tucker, it's not that funny," she sneered, seriously annoyed as she took her seat in the middle isle both of the Nasty Burger. She looked at Tucker's huge orders (yes, plural) of various meat products, and had to resist the urge to vomit. A plate of Tucker's half eaten food was defiantly on the top of her list of most disturbing and horrific things she had ever seen. If she could see her other best friend, Danny, at that very moment she most defiantly would have revised that list. Not that she hadn't seen Danny severely injured before, just the whole idea that he could do something so gruesomely disturbing to himself would have been enough to make her physically ill, the unmoving state of his body (corpse?) causing her physical pain.

That wasn't the case though, and as it stood Sam, and by extension Tucker, had no idea what state Danny was in, and so Tucker's plate was considered disturbing and horrific, and it was permissible that Tucker be laughing hysterically at the sight of Sam decked out in a frilly pink dress from the mid 1950's.

"What...happened" gasp, "to you," Tucker spat out between laughter as he climbed back up to his seat. Small projectiles of half chewed meat flew towards Sam and she deftly dogged as best she could. A few did get caught in her hair though, and that coupled with what she had been forced into wearing made her a bit moody.

"What's it to you, huh?" She spat out as she untangled a small glob of half chewed _meat_ from her thick, admittedly unnaturally, black hair.

"Nothing, nothing, just want to know why one of my best friends is bearing a striking resemblance to Domestic Barbie," he laughed. Sam stopped what she was doing to send him her most withering glance. It could stop trained solders in their track and Tucker gulped quite dramatically. He stole a quick glance at the front doors of the fast food establishment, almost hoping to somehow see Danny, the only person capable of quelling Sam's anger, appear through the doors, even though he wasn't invited to this little meeting.

"I'm going to ignore that... **for now**, for the sake of time. Now, care to tell me why you called me to 'an emergency meeting' at the Nasty Burger at two in the morning?!" Sam was angry. She had been forced into wearing a fluffy pink abomination, forced to wake up in the middle of the night, had half chewed meat sprayed all over her, and been laughed at in a most annoying way. Basically, if Tucker didn't find a very good answer, he would never be able to have children. Despite the eminent danger, Tucker couldn't seem to resist one last jab before moving on to serious conversation.

"It's about Ken, Barbie," he laughed. Sam took a moment to get the joke, but, as much as she hated to admit it, there was really only one person he could be taking about. She quickly and effectively smacked him on the side of the head.

"Get it through your thick skull, Tucker. I. Do. Not. Like. Danny!"

"Who said anything about Danny," he smirked back, realigning his glasses, which had been knocked to the side by Sam's palm. Her responding glare made him flinch. Then he sighed, knowing it was time to put joking aside. "In all seriousness, Sam. I'm worried about Danny. He's been acting... strange lately, I mean, more than normal. He says it's just ghosts keeping him up at night, but I can't help thinking there's more to it..." Tucker bit his lip and looked away. He was seriously worried about his best friend, and he really hoped Sam could tell him it was all in his head.

"I know what you mean, Tuck. He hasn't been his usual carefree self lately," Sam immediately sobered up, she to had noticed the differences in Danny, and she had thought they were all in her head. Having Tucker confirm her own fears was worrisome. "Ever since Sophomore year started seven months ago... he's been becoming less talkative and doesn't joke as much, it's been getting worse recently," Sam fiddled with her hands, staring off into space. Tucker's eyes widened. He had only noticed this change for the past four months or so. Sam had seen it for seven?! This could be bad. Really bad.

"Seven months," Tuck whispered to himself, then he looked back up at Sam, "you don't think... you don't think there's something seriously wrong, do you?" He asked in fear.

"Like what? There's something wrong, that much is obvious, but I honestly have no idea what it could be. Half the time he walks around like he's dead..." Sam and Tucker cringed at her word choice. Half the time he was dead, but they preferred to think of it as mutated DNA, not death. Anytime Danny would even bring up the possibility that he was half dead and not just infused with ectoplasm, they immediately tried to dissuade him from the idea. As much for their own benefit as his. They were fourteen, they weren't ready to think about death, to be so close to death. Little did they know this was part of the problem. They never listened to Danny's arguments long enough to properly comfort him on the matter, and he had convinced himself that he was in fact dead. They thought of it as mutated DNA, Danny saw it as death- and as long as they shyed away from that half of his nature, they could never truly understand him, and if they won't understand, they can't help.

"I just don't know, Tucker," Sam sighed. She sat and thought for a second, "what do you mean by 'seriously wrong' anyway?", she asked in confusion. He had said it so terrifyingly and in such a loaded whisper.

"Nothing!... Well, something," Tucker admitted, his voice going back to a deep whisper. "I just... he seems so distant, when he talks it's so forced, and he barley even knows what he's saying..." He trailed off and took a deep breath, and continued trying to explain on different route, "The other day, during my free period, you know I have first period free, I saw him walking to school. That was weird by itself, since he always used to fly. Anyway, I was walking up to him, but he didn't notice me. He had his sleeve pulled up- that's another thing, he used to hate long sleeves- and was looking over his arm. It had this huge cut going from right above the wrist to the inside of his elbow... it looked like a knife cut, and he was tracing over it with such a look of...tenderness, almost..." he trailed off, looking deep into Sam's eyes and hoping she would understand where he was going with it. She was confused for a moment, and then,

"Oh!" She started. Then she shook her head furiously, "No. No, no, no. Danny would never do that. Not to himself. He... he's been acting strange, but... not depressed, no never depressed to that level. Look at Phantom! He's still out fighting ghosts with that gun-ho attitude of his! Okay, so maybe there's not as much witty banter, and he doesn't fight as lively anymore but, I mean, fighting has to get a little monotonous eventually, right? It could really be any–" her words were rushed and desperate.

"Sam, stop!" Tucker put an end to her rambling by taking her hands where they twitched nervously on the table top. His half eaten meals lay forgotten to the side. "Look, I know you don't want it to be true, neither do I! He's my best friend! to think that something like that is even possible... but we have to think with our heads, not our feelings. Now think for a second. You're smart and you know Danny better than anyone, even me. Do you think he could maybe, possibly, by any small chance, be hurting himself?" He squeezed both her hands in his and looked deep into her eyes, trying to communicate his fears. To anyone on the outside it might have looked almost romantic, but it was completely platonic, just two best friends equally troubled by the only thing they truly had in common.

"Tucker, I–" Sam was about to rush in again,

"Just think about it," Tucker insisted, sounding very calm, but underneath he hid a layer of sincere panic. It was true that Sam knew Danny better than even him, so he would go along with whatever she thought. If it turned out he was just being overly worried and nervous, great, he would like nothing better than to be wrong (which he was about the cut, but not completely about the possibility...). However, if it turned out there was even the slightest chance that his best friend was having those types of thoughts, feelings, or doing anything dangerous, besides fighting ghosts that is, then he would go directly to Jazz, (who had been rewarded a scholarship to a ritzy boarding school just out of state for her senior year, and saw her family often enough to tell _something_ was wrong with Danny, but not enough that she could possibly know what it was or the depth or scope of it).

Tucker knew she would have a way to deal with it. Together she, him, and Sam would make a plan, they would even involve the Fenton parents of that's what it took. God, how he hoped he was desperately desperately wrong... Finally, Sam took a deep breath and started to talk.

"Danny has been acting strange lately, and I won't even go as far as to say he's not perhaps a bit depressed. That said, though, Danny knows he has people that care desperately about him, either side of him: his parents and Valerie would do anything for Danny Fenton. People, like the entire town, adore Phantom. He even has a few people like us, who know the truth and love both sides of him: Me, you, and Jazz who would risk our lives for Fenton and Phantom. He knows how much we care for him and how much we look up to and need him. He knows how much the town needs him and how much his family and we need him. He knows this! If not for himself then for us, Danny would never do anything to purposely hurt anyone, especially us, and so he would never do anything to purposely hurt himself, because he knows that if he hurts himself he's hurting us," Sam said it all with such finality and conviction that Tucker let out a sigh of relief.

Danny was going to be just fine. Sam was right, Danny must know these things. He loved Danny as a brother, Sam loved Danny as something so much more, Danny knew this. Danny knew he had people who loved him. Tucker smiled, and got up from the table, letting go of Sam's hands. He was so utterly relieved that he wasn't even hungry anymore. Sam followed close behind him. And so two friends out of three left the Nasty Burger, both going their own separate ways. Having decided everything would be fine, neither willing to admit that something was wrong. That the one person they both completely trusted, look up to, and would give their lives for was on the edge. That the strongest most secure person they knew was cracking, and that soon it would be to late to save him. That it may already be to late...

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_**A/N:**__ They're not bad friends, they just can't, or don't want to, consider the awful possibilities. It's sad, really..._

_Well, that's just my opinion, what do you think? **Review**!_


	7. Culprit and Victim

Maddie rubbed her arms and let out a sigh. It was getting pretty cold out and in her haste to leave the house and search for her son she hadn't even thought to grab a jacket.

_This is ridiculous_, she thought to herself. She had already checked the park and the Nasty Burger (which was open 24/7) with no luck. It had been nearly an hour and a half! Danny was probably already back home, lying in his warm bed all tangled up in his sheets. She shivered again, _that's it!_ She decided as she quickly turned at the corner to begin her trek back home. If Danny was there, he was in a load of trouble. If he wasn't... well, she would jump that hurdle when she got to it. An especially chilling wind blew by and Maddie brought her hands to her mouth, blew into them, and rubbed and hugged herself tightly. It was dark, cold, and creepy. She felt like an idiot, wandering the streets at two thirty in the morning. Sure, Amity Park was a pretty safe town baring ghost attacks, and Maddie could most certainly take care of herself, but why tempt fate? Every sound sent her jumping, every movement made her eyes dart. After the twentieth or so false alarm she grumbled under her breath, cursing her suspicious nature.

"You better be home, Daniel James Fenton," she grumbled, not wanting to think of what she would have to do if he wasn't. As Maddie was walking past yet another dark alleyway she was suddenly hit by the coldest chill yet. She stomped her feet in place and blew into her hands, rubbing her sides reassuringly. Yet, the chill would not go away, and she knew why. Maddie recognized this sort of chill, one that had nothing to do with outside temperature and everything to do with every human beings instinct of self preservation. The type of chill that could only mean one thing. Ghost.

Quickly, Maddie turned on her heal and spun her head around, looking for the source of the spectral anomaly, assuming it was visible at the time. Suddenly she heard a sharp chatter coming from somewhere within the alleyway. She took a deep breath and trekked in. She knew heading into a dark alleyway with nothing but a single ghost weapon and containment device, neither of which could actually hurt humans, was ten times more idiotic than walking the darkened streets of Amity Park on her own, but Maddie had promised herself that she would rid her town of the ectoplasmic vermin that infested it, and if the risk was her own safety, so be it.

However, she arrived at the end of the alley, which turned out to be a dead end, without incident, and the sight that met her there greatly surprised and disgusted her. A large glowing green raccoon stood over a still form, pawing at it and tasting bits of green and and another darker liquid it found on the shape. The raccoon was obviously a ghost, but Maddie let it be for now since it was the only source of light in the area. At the very edge of the eerie light cast by the ghostly scavenger, Maddie could just see groups of tiny noses and hear grating squeaks. Rats, dozens of them all circled around, obviously wanting the raccoons prize, but instinctively repelled by the air of death the spectral animal excluded. All this was taken in at the back of Maddie's mind, because what truly had her reeling was the figure the raccoon was perched over. It was a figure she knew and recognized very well, just... not like this.

Maddie would have recognized crisp pure white hair, a strong solid figure always ready to take what comes next, and light mirth filled eyes that always looked like they knew something you didn't and enjoyed teasing you about it. The thing crumpled in a heap on the cold concrete wasn't that at all. This had limp light dirty white hair covered in grime and sticky green and brown, a crumpled broken figure that looked like it had given up, and open and unblinking grey lifeless eyes that held no emotion. So in theory, Maddie recognized Danny Phantom, but really she had never seen the teen before her in her life. If it weren't for the fact he were a ghost, Maddie would be certain he was dead. As it was, despite never knowing such a thing to be possible in a ghost, Maddie knew he was unresponsive. How else could one explain him allowing a ghostly raccoon to... oh God! Maddie suddenly realized what the raccoon was doing. She knew the green stuff was ectoplasm, she knew that ectoplasm was a ghosts essence, it's 'blood' if you will. Therefore, the raccoon, which was exploring the body and licking up the green goo that it seemed to very much enjoy, was eating the teen's blood! She almost threw up at the realization, but instead she whipped out her ghost gun and fired a few warning shots at the critter, which promptly scurried away, followed by the watching rats which had been frightened by the sudden movement.

It was now extremely dark in the alley way, and she could only barely see the outline of the ghostly teen because of her special googles (not exactly night vision, but helpful enough). That she needed them at all was odd, she had never known a ghost to completely extinguish its ghostly glow, she hadn't thought it possible, regardless, Phantom was not letting out any more light than if he were human. Maddie squinted at the figure, here he was the ghost she had promised herself she would destroy and study more than any other, the famous, or infamous depending on who you asked, Danny Phantom. He was completely at her mercy... She sighed, despite her hate of Phantom, she couldn't end him like this, without a fight, and despite herself she couldn't help but notice how frail and small he looked, crumpled up on the dirt and covered in his own 'blood' like the victim of some horrendous crime. Maddie sighed again and put her ghost blaster, previously aimed at Phantoms head, back onto her utility belt, taking out her ghost containment cube at the same time. She pressed the button on the side and, with a wet squishing sound, Phantom was sucked inside, along with the ectoplasm and brownish substance covering him and the walls, erasing almost all evidence that he was ever there.

All evidence except for a small silver cell phone covered in duel-colored blood. Maddie didn't see that clue in the dark as she quickly turned around and headed home, already imagining all the tests she planned to run on her newest specimen, her missing son pushed to the back corners of her mind.

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**_A/N:_** _For goodness' sake, Maddie! Come on! Kind of ironic, though, that she forgot about her son because of her son._

_So, I just realized that a few chapters ago I said the chapter before this would be the conclusion... obviously, I lied. This story went a completely different direction than I was planning, and I made the planned ending to this story (which was first thing I actually wrote for it) into its own one-shot (now complete, called _'Truth'_) because it doesn't fit very well into this story anymore. However, that leaves me with the problem of having absolutely no idea where this story is going anymore, and so I've kind of run into a block when it comes to anything after this chapter... Just be ready to wait an extra two weeks or so for the next chapter, I have no idea when I'll figure out exactly where the rest of the story will go from here. Either way, I'm pretty sure this story is coming to it's end and will be finished sometime in the next four or five chapters... pretty sure. None of that, however, means I don't appreciate..._

_**Reviews**!_


	8. Innocence

_Okay, so this is finally out, but now I'm having serious problems with my other story, '_Phantom Changes'_. It's just going so slow! I'm having trouble just getting them to leave Sam's house already, I mean it's been like five chapters in there! I'm straightening out the kinks now though, and it should only take a little longer and that will be out to... Now enjoy the chapter!_

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The bright lights flooded the lab in a shade of white, causing Maddie to take a step back in surprise at the sudden assault on her eyes.

"Have to remember to put a dimmer on these things," she joked to herself as she slowly adjusted to the sudden brightness after the dim lighting of the street. Maddie stepped into the lab and made her way straight to the barely used examination table pressed up against the wall. It was barely used not for lack of trying, it just seemed that every ghost she and Jack did manage to trap simply did not have the stability of form or the intelligence to be worth interrogating... or dissecting. Luckily, Phantom happened to have both, Maddie smugly patted her containment cube in realization of how profitable her catch really was. Then she frowned upon remembering her new test subjects less than prime condition. She quickly shrugged it off, it's not like ghosts could actually be hurt, even if they are destroyed they don't actually feel pain (_right..._). Maddie unhooked the cube from her belt and carefully placed it on a shelf, she then turned and quickly wiped down the areas and machines that she would need: the ghost proof table and bonds, the Fenton electrifier, the Fenton destabilizer, the Spooktometer, the ghost proof autopsy kit, and other various supplies for other various tests. Once everything was sterile and painstakingly ordered, Maddie had a small internal debate with herself, should she get Jack? He most certainly wouldn't want to miss this, but he did have this habit of accidentally freeing ghosts, a habit that this particularly slippery phantom had always managed to exploit to it's fullest, and with his still unusable arm... Maddie sighed in regret, making a note to make Jack an extra large batch of triple peanut butter fudge cookies to make it up to him. Maddie picked up the cube and aimed it at the table, and now for the moment of truth...

The bright blue light shot out of the device, hitting the table and slowly forming a swirling black and white mist into a humanoid shape. The instant it solidified and the blue beam disappeared, glowing red bonds sprouted from the table and restrained the ghost's wrists and ankles in a taunt eagle spread position. Once that was over Maddie carefully approached the table, ecto-gun clutched tightly in her hand . She had learned that, when it comes to Phantom, she should always be on guard. However, upon finally getting a good look at the creature, she decided her worry was unfounded. He wasn't just unconscious, he was a mess. The upper part of his suit around the collar was completely shredded, as were the sleeves, and his arms for that matter. His face was covered in ectoplasm and a darker substance as was the rest of his body. Maddie quickly decided the worst were his eyes. His normally big bright sparkling green eyes were dull grey, holding no hint of life.

That was something Maddie always found interesting about Phantom, his eyes. They were much more... alive, than any ghost's had the right to be. Not only was he one of few ghosts that had actual whites, irises, and pupils rather than just eerie pits of color, but they were so... joyful. When you look into the eyes of most ghosts, there was no doubt about what they were, their eyes were like bottomless pits, like you were staring straight into the depths of that empty dimension they call home. Phantom, though, well if it weren't for the vibrant color, you could swear the owner was nothing less than human.

It was seeing those distinctly human eyes so grey and lifeless, that Maddie realized all of Phantom's strength was in his eyes. Without those bright green lights filled with courage and mirth, he looked so... frail and weak. Never before this moment had Maddie noticed how small the ghost really was. Maddie had always just accepted that Phantom was around fifteen or so and had the strength to lift full sized school buses, but now that, for the first time, she was close to him with time to really examine the specter, she could see that he was extremely childlike. He was short for a boy, only around 5'3, 5'4 or so. His face was young, with rounded edges and, as much as it pained Maddie to admit it, an overall look of innocence. He was skinny, almost sickly so, and, especially in the condition he was in now, he looked fragile.

It was actually pretty sad. Now that Maddie saw this, she figure that Phantom must have died sometime in the early stages of puberty. He really was just a ghost boy. A child for all eternity... How awful. To die so young... Now that she thought about it, he kind of looked like her son... She tilted her head as she examined his young face. Ya, he had the same general look to him as her little boy. What would she do if she ever lost her Danny like Phantom's mother lost him? Maddie scowled, bringing herself out of her stupor. What a ridiculous thing to be thinking about at such a time! She could not allow a mere specimen to bring out such deep emotions. Comparing a ghost to her son, of all absurd things! Maddie shook her head in amusement, concentrating again on the ectoplasmic entity at her mercy, even if he didn't know it yet.

As she examined his still form, she frowned. His injured and unresponsive state didn't bode well for her research. The biggest perk of finding such a complex ghost as Phantom was his intellect, even over his physiology. Sure, his odd and complex ghostly biology was a perk, but, over all, most ghosts, no matter the complexity, had the same basic internal parts, sort of like all mammals have the same basic parts, but their thought processes... That was what really differed, and the chance to find out more about the mind of Phantom, possibly the most psychologically complex ghost Maddie had ever encountered, was an amazing opportunity that could revolutionize the world of the paranormal sciences. Make paranormal science logical and scientific. None of that was possible if her test subject simply 'bleed out' unresponsive on her table.

Maddie studied the specimen carefully to see of she could divine the problem. He was obviously extensively injured, so... perhaps he was in some sort of preservative state in order to prevent further loss of ectoplasm? She knew ghosts couldn't die, but they can cease to exist. When that happened their bodies melted or dissolved, so Phantom was still in some form of existence, but who knows how long he would be in this odd state of hibernation? Logically until his spectral body decided the threat of losing stability of form through loss of ectoplasmic energy was past. The only way to speed that up, Maddie realized, was to treat the ghost's wounds.

Maddie sighed again, not really wanting to 'help' the ghost, but she reasoned to herself that it was in the sake of science and research. Never would she admit to anyone, even herself, that somewhere, in a small corner in the back of her mind, Maddie felt sympathy for the small dead child lying on her examination table.

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_**A/N: **__I known not the torture scene you were waiting for, but it's called procrastinating, somethinomit very skilled at, but I promise, it'll be in the next one... maybe. Still not really sure where it's going. I think I'll tie up that lose end with the phone, and then move on to it... Hey, at least Maddie's going to help him before hand!_

_Well, __**review**__ and tell me what you think!_


	9. Bloody Mistrust

Maddie couldn't help the horror on her face, she held her hands up to her mouth and her widened eyes refused to stop staring. She had removed the top half of Phantom's jumpsuit (which, as was usual for ghost clothing, melted into goop after being removed from the specter) and started to wipe away the ectoplasm and other substance when she suddenly realized exactly what the other substance was. It was so obvious that she must have just been blocking the possibility from her mind, because, though it was obvious, it seemed highly unlikely.

Blood. Red blood. Phantom was covered in ectoplasm and human blood. A lot of human blood. The amount was undermined under the sheer amount of ectoplasm, but it was, by Maddie's calculations, a little less than a liter. A litter of human blood. A little less than half the amount of blood an adult male could lose without dying (about 2.2 liters). Whoever lost all this blood needed immediate medical attention, and considering Phantom often hung with teenagers, the situation could be even worse. Maddie slowly brought her hands down and felt herself go into cold scientist mode. She needed Phantom awake to tell her whose blood this was, and where to find that person, and if Phantom was responsible for this... no amount of perceived innocence or motherly instinct would be able to save him from her wrath.

Maddie once again started cleaning off Phantom's body, making sure to preserve a vile of uncontaminated ectoplasm and blood (just in case). She took off his filthy gloves and boots, which to her surprise, unlike the shirt, didn't turn into ectoplasmic goop the moment they were away from his projected energy field as did the projections of all other ghosts she encountered, and wiped off his surprisingly detailed and silky white hair. If it weren't that she were so pressed for time, Maddie could spend hours examining all of this particular ghost's odd anomalies. Textured skin, believable projected material thickness (his gloves were thicker than the rest of his suit, and the boots had real soles ext.), real fingernails and teeth that seemed to be made of a harder substance than the rest of him, individual strands of hair that, upon being plucked, stayed as hair, and many other small things that she , regrettably, didn't have time for... at the moment.

When she was finished, Maddie was left with a very disturbing sight. The shirtless Phantom still stared at her with wide grey unblinking eyes, but his clean chest and arms exposed large deep scrape like cuts starting at his shoulders and peeling skin down his arms and chest. She would have bandaged these except, besides the fact that they weren't oozing anymore, ghosts shouldn't posses in jury's long enough to require bandages. However, these cuts, despite not being blocked by anything, didn't seem like they had any real inclination to heal. If he were a human that would be normal, as, obviously, human flesh doesn't heal in seconds, but ectoplasm is different. It's a lot like play-doh in the way it just molds itself back together. That didn't seem to be happening to the stilled Phantom, and Maddie was becoming frustrated. She didn't have time for this! Why wasn't he waking up! If her previous theory held, it was because he still wasn't recuperated, meaning his ectoplasm was still unstable. How in the world was she supposed to solve that!?

Wait... unstable ectoplasm... Maddie quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out multiple glowing green cylinders with a spray applicator on top. The concentrated ectoplasm (still ecto-dejecto) from her son's room! It was exactly what she needed! Introducing ectoplasm to the energy starved phantom's body should jump start the healing process, and the best part was that, unlike human's, ghosts had the amazing ability to transfigure foreign ectoplasm to become compatible with it's own!

Maddie quickly pressed the nozzle and sprayed the substance all over phantom, paying extra attention to anywhere the ectoplasm appeared to be split open. There was a pregnant pause, just long enough to lower Maddie's excitement, when there was a bright glow, even brighter than the whitewashed lights of the lab (and substantially colder), all originating from the spectral teenager.

Maddie had to hold in the urge to jump for joy as Phantom's aura rather suddenly started up and settled into its normal glow. She watched as his chest literally melted and reformed right in front of her eyes, not even the slightest traces of scars left over, and, perhaps most impressive of all, Maddie watched as the puddle of goop that was once a torn shirt flew over to cover the boy's chest, and turned into small finely woven threads that quickly stitched themselves into their previous form directly onto his body, no traces of tearing. Even his previously removed gloves and boots jumped onto their respective body parts.

Best, and perhaps most interestingly of all, dull grey eyes melted into pupil-less pits of bottomless pitch black, only to suddenly flare with toxic neon green like a pair of headlights being turned on, that quickly shaped itself into a pupil. When the light dyed down, two green humanoid eyes faced Maddie.

They blinked a few times, as if dazed, and darted around the lab.

"Maddie," Phantom said in somber greeting. Maddie was surprised, she thought he would be more indignant about waking up from his strange hibernation to find himself strapped to a examination table.

"Phantom," she didn't know how else to respond. Until she suddenly remembered why it had been so imperative that she wake the specter up. She marched over to the edge of the table.

"Listen, Phantom, and listen good. You have approximately five seconds to tell me why you were covered in human blood, or you will leave this room fried molecule by fried molecule."

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_**A/N**__: I know, I know, I'm taking forever and not even writing that much, but what can I say? It's attack of the killer plot bunny's in my head. Did you know I have almost thirty different DP story ideas written down in my computer. Some of them are just a vague idea, some are completely plotted out stories, and many of them send random chapters my way. Currently six, including the ones I'm working on n this site, are in progress, I just can't help that random scenes keep dooming to me and I can't write anything else until I write them! But I promise I try really hard to get updates out for the ones I have posted first! Lately though, one has hit me with a vengeance. I've already written forty pages for it... in four days! That's like, way beyond my record, and as a result, my other stories are being neglected. Whatever, hopefully I'll have more time when school finally lets out (just one more week of finals, and I'm done)._

_In other news, I don't think their will be as much Maddie experimenting on Phantom in this Fic as I originally planned, it just went a different way, and it wouldn't fit in very well, but don't worry, they're will still be enough To satisfy our need for Danny angst. What? Doesn't every phan have that? I know I do. I love Danny, but he. Must. Suffer!_

**_Review?_**


	10. Red Cold Anger

**Super important A/N! Please read before chapter!** _Okay, so I was editing my stories a few days ago, looking over all of them and stuff, when I realized I made a huge mistake in this one! Apparently, when I edited chapter four a while back, I accidentally replaced the real chapter with the chapter four of my other story 'Phantom Changes'! Oops. Anyway, I don't know when this happened, but it must have been a while ago since I haven't edited it for a while, and this means a good number of you could have read it and, since it actually kind of makes sense in the part of this story it was put in, thought it was the chapter for this story! So either you a: are really confused, or b: have the totally wrong idea about this story. So, I strongly recommend that all of you out there go back to chapter four, and read the first paragraph. If it doesn't look familiar, you should probably scan over chapter three, read chapter four, and scan over chapter five again so you can see exactly where this part of the story happened and catch up on other things since it's been a while. Everyone, go ahead and check, don't worry, I'll wait here._

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_Okay, to everyone who just reread, great, you're back! To those who didn't, thanks for waiting! Now that everyone's on the same page again... enjoy!_

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Phantom wasn't as worried by the threat as Maddie might have hoped. He simply lifted his head as far as he could to look at her and sighed loudly (wait, ghosts can breath?) while letting his head fall back onto the table with such force that Maddie cringed. That wasn't the only thing that made her cringe though, his eyes. Sure, they were no longer grey, but they were still just as lifeless. It was... creepy. For the first time, Maddie found herself wondering what exactly happened to the young ghost that lead to her finding him in the condition she had. So much so that she found herself forgetting about the human blood **(1)**. Well, until...

"How much?" The echoing quality just caused the dead voice to be all the more empty. It sounded so apathetic, the voice of some_thing_ that just didn't care.

"Um, what?" Maddie shook her head to clear her thoughts, ashamed to be caught unawares by her test subject. The ghost closed his eyes and turned his head to ceiling.

"How much blood?" it chillingly asked again. "... red blood, on me," it added.

Now, she knew the statement should have sent her spiraling straight back to cold scientist mode but yet, something was off about the way the ghost said it. More curious than worried, with a morbid undertone. Now, with any other ghost this could be dismissed as a sick and twisted curiosity to how much suffering they left their prey in, but Phantom had always at least put up the elaborate facade of valuing human life. It was not like ghosts to suddenly break character like that. So instead of immediately going into a frenzy, Maddie is ashamed to say that she allowed the human to slip her mind, and focused on the ghost. She told herself it was so that she could retain a collected focus on the problem, but really... well, she was not only extremely curious, but felt the smallest tiniest sliver of maternity towards the teenage specter.

"Why do you ask?" she lifted a single red-brown eyebrow.

"Hmmm?" Phantom disinterestedly groaned as of his mind had been preoccupied with something different. He rolled his head to face her, his sad eyes slowly opening and boring into hers.

"Why do you want to know how much blood?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips and shifting her weight. This seemed to finally catch the ghosts attention, just not in a way she would have expected from Phantom specifically.

He tensed up and his hands balled into tight fists. His aura brightened slightly, and the first flash of life she had seen yet flashed in his eyes... in the form of white hot anger.

"Why do you even care!?" he growled menacingly. What really caught the ghost hunters attention, though, were the nearly translucent green tears flooding out of his eyes. Rather than feel threatened, she felt like the question was some sort of an accusation.

"What do you mean, ghost?" she questioned, reaching for the Fenton ecto blaster at her waist just in case.

"You could have noticed way before there was any blood! You just don't..." his tone suddenly changed, become softer and thoughtful, "... because I'm not human. You don't notice because I'm not human, and so you just don't care," he blinked his eyes, trying to see past the tears obstructing his eyesight.

Danny didn't even know why he was crying so hard. It was ridiculous, he didn't want his mother to notice! After all, he had done it to himself, so that meant he wanted to hurt, right? He didn't want her to stop him from hurting himself, in fact, it had felt so good he planned to do it again next time he ever felt so down on himself, providing he ever got out of this situation.

However, despite what he told himself, he felt sorta'... angry at her. She didn't care about all the ectoplasm she found, because he wasn't human, so if she knew the blood was from him, and he wasn't human, she wouldn't care either. Danny found himself once again asking himself why it seemed people couldn't care for him the same way he did for them, especially those who were supposed to love him the most, like, for example, oh say... his own damn parents!

Maddie clenched her fist, sure she was confused, but she didn't take very well to being accused of anything, and that's sure what it sounded like the ghost was doing.

"Of course I don't care about you! Why would I?! You're nothing but a blob of protoplasmic remains!"

"Nothing but ectoplasmic remains!?" Phantom seemed outraged for some reason she simply couldn't grasp. "How can you say that!? I'm your s-" he abruptly cut himself off. Tear blurred eyes wide.

"My what, you're my what?" She asked scathingly, that seemed to restart the ghost.

"I. Am. A. Person," he spit out, eyes daring her to contradict the statement, oh, and contradict it she did.

Maddie put her hand to her mouth and pretended to holdback a giggle, letting a sneer pass her lips instead.

"A person?" She scoffed, "don't make me laugh, you're not a person, you're nothing, in fact, the world would be better off without you! If it weren't for the excellent scientific opportunities you present, I would regret saving you, ghost," Maddie was not proud that she let her anger get the best of her, especially when this ghost was obviously just trying to rile her up, but still...

Phantom's 'anger' cracked so easily under her words. Maybe if Maddie knew it was her son she was talking to, she would be able to understand half the pain she had just caused him, and actually regret it. As it was, she took childish pride in being able to 'hurt' the phantom enough that his mask cracked, she hadn't expected his psych to be so complex that he knew when to react a certain way, such as when to implement anger and hurt. His ruse wasn't flawless though, for example, he was acting way to hurt now than a normal person should be to the words of a practical stranger. He shouldn't care that she would have left him there to rot, and so she knew he was trying just a tad to hard, and took pleasure in breaking down that facade, piece by piece.

"As it is, I'm thinking of tracking down whoever left you in the condition I found you in, and giving them a medal," she sneered. The reaction she got from the snow haired specter blew everything the thought she knew about his emotions straight out of the water.

"Then go ahead," he glared at her, his words barely more than a pained whisper, "after all, you're already talking to him,".

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_**A/N**__: Ta Da! See, told you all I would get around to it! I'm actually really proud of this, just because it was so hard for me to overcome my epic laziness and just write out the chapter already, but I did it, and there it is!_

**(1)**_ Wow, Maddie's quite forgetful in this story, isn't she? First Danny's (her son's) injuries, than Danny (her son) missing, then the human blood covering Danny (as a ghost)? All pretty big things to forget._

_I know I don't deserve it because of this tremendous wait, and I'm sorry,but still... __**Review**__?_

_p.s. they took Danny Phantom off Netflix, not cool! Where am I supposed to get my Danny fix now?!_


	11. Death by Emotion

_**A/N**__: Longest chapter in this story so far! Can you believe it started off as the shortest, with only two or three short paragraphs? I was going to submit that, but while I was editing I added a sentence to make it flow better, and realized that sentence could play into other things, and it eventually lead to Maddie's whole theory on–_

_Muse 4: No giving away the story!_

_Me: Oops, sorry, looks like you'll have to read it to find out! (Muse 4 was always the grumpy one with all that angst, if you need anything, you should talk to 6, she's always laughing. Unfortunately, 4 wrote this chapter... and most of the story)._

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Maddie's eyes widened at the implications of what Phantom had said. Her mouth flew open, but all that came out was a rather inarticulate,

"Huh?"

_He, he did that... to himself!?_ Maddie questioned with horror while looking over the pale teenager. A teenager, that was really all he was, Maddie realized, and teenagers were emotional, and here was a teenager who was all alone, had no support, and plenty of people who hated him with a passion. He was practically the poster child for things to look for in someone who would attempt, well, suicide. But that couldn't be right! Phantom couldn't have been trying to destroy, or even hurt, himself, because that would require him to really hate himself, or really feel awful enough for physical pain to relieve him, and that required real honest to God emotions. Emotions that couldn't simply come from remains of human life or impressions in his psych, but that came with having actual... feelings. Unless... Maddie's face suddenly fell into a relieved, and a bit cruel, smirk as she made sense of this.

It was perfectly possible that Phantom was imprinting old emotions, that is, if he had felt that way in life. He must have died by suicide. It really was the only explanation. Yes, it was sad, Maddie allowed, but it had happened, for all she knew he had died before she was even born, and so there was no point grieving now. Either way, he was no longer that lost child, now he was nothing but an imprint of that long lost boy's mind, a piece that hadn't really wanted to die... until now.

Maddie only became more elated as she realized how perfectly well that explanation fit. That was why Phantom saved people one minute, and terrorized them the next! He was still just as confused as the day he took his own life. He really did value human life... his own. He didn't want anyone to die the way he did, because he was a small piece of consciousness from the mind of someone who had decided to take their own life, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Maddie had read somewhere once that most teenagers who attempted suicide remembered realizing that they desperately wanted to live as soon as they realized they really were going to die. The same must have been true for the boy Phantom once was, except he had succeeded in his attempt, and this was the result. A ghost who never really had a chance to live, and so was angry at everyone and everything that caused him to give up his own life, but at the same time couldn't bare to see anyone else die because of his own mistakes. Nothing short of tragic, really, and Maddie once again found herself wondering how awful it would be to lose a son the way this child's mother lost hers, especially now that she knew exactly how that was... Poor family, and poor boy. However, that didn't change the fact that this thing lying in front of her was no longer that poor boy, just a rampant and destructive spirit.

It also explained why Phantom would do this to himself, he was still haunted by his life, and his mind was still just as impressionable. That small part of that child that had desperately wanted to live was starting to agree with the part that welcomed death. Short in short, Phantom was starting to want what the rest of him had wanted when he did what he did... death. Even though it was much to late for him.

"Phantom, how did you die?" Maddie was positive she already knew, but wanted confirmation, really just so she could pat herself on the back for a good days work. Unfortunately, her voice came out much more... sympathetic, than she would have hoped.

The ghost was obviously a bit baffled by this response to his previous confession, but that worked in her favor as he was to distracted to be angered or insulted by the blunt question, as Maddie knew most ghosts would be.

"I-I, umm. It was an accident. It hurt," was the only answer he seamed able to dredge up. Or rather the only lie, Maddie amended, noting the way his anger seemed to deflate and his expression became melancholy, he really was rather good at this 'emotions' thing.

"Really? Tell me, what kind of accident?" She asked trying to throw him off. However, apparently Phantom was even better at recognizing emotion than she would have thought. He picked up on her suspicious tone immediately.

"What? Do you have a problem with my death?" He asked defensively. Too defensively, in Maddie's opinion.

"As a matter of fact, I do," she answered. She decided to just get on with it. "I know your death was no 'accident', a mistake, maybe, but no accident," he didn't seem inclined to intervene, so Maddie continued. "I know that you killed yourself, Phantom," to Maddie's credit, she relayed her knowledge as gently as she could. In reverence for the boy who had taken his own life, it wouldn't kill her to be civil to his ghost.

His ghost which, at the moment, seemed rather stunned.

"Kill myself?" He whispered, "I didn't commit suicide," he told her, his voice much stronger, "I didn't," he repeated softly. Maddie saw that he was trembling, he seemed quite shaken by the subject, which she took as trauma at passed actions instead of nervousness those which he might have planned for the future.

"Yes, you did," she pressed on, determined to lift the truth from him,"there's no use lying about it again, I know that's how you died,"

"Are you saying that you know how I died better than I do? Don't you think that's something I would know a bit better than you?" The lab was dead silent. The bright lights caused pitch back shadows to gather anywhere something blocked their path, and as Phantom shifted his head so that he was staring back at the ceiling from his shackled position, and then back at her, his hair momentarily cast one of these looming shadows and blacked out his large eyes. The effect was rather chilling. "You don't know anything about me," the statement was incredulous, his voice sounded threatening and subdued at the same time. As if this were something he just realized, or had just come to terms with, but wasn't happy with.

"So, you're saying you didn't commit suicide?" Maddie asked, still not buying it, but not letting her suspicions creep into her tone this time.

"Not yet I haven't" Danny mumbled darkly under his breath, to low for his mother to hear. Louder he answered with a calm, yet patronizing, "yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. I. Did. Not. Kill. My-Self. Actually, at the time of my death, I probably would have been horrified at the thought," he seemed so sincere and open, and Maddie recognized it as a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the ghost.

"Why?" She asked gently, real curiosity coloring her voice. She figured his lie had to have some origin in truth. She also realized, that if he really did kill himself, he was probably actually very eager to share his 'feelings' with someone just as he had been in life. All she had to do was pretend to care, and he would be like putty in her hands.

Danny was truly taken aback by the question. His mother never bothered to ask human him 'why' anything anymore. What made his ghost form any different? This was an opportunity to maybe, just maybe, get her to understand _both_ sides of him.

"I don't know, I guess... it never would have crossed my mind, you know?" He paused, looking to Maddie for encouragement to continue. She reached behind her and grabbed a chair, spinning it so it was facing him, before sitting down, brimming with curiosity about the tale the ghost was going to spin. Very discreetly, she pressed the record button on her audio notes, which she had clipped to her waist. However, all Danny saw was his mother, looking at him with what he thought was genuine interest and sympathy, willing to listen. Really though, could Maddie be blamed? She had no idea as to the true identity of the specter, and so she had no clue as to the cruel cosmic joke she was playing on him by pretending to care.

"I mean, I wasn't the most confident person on the planet, and I wasn't popular or anything, I really only had two friends," a small smile here, Maddie noted, "but despite the constant bullying, I was... I was happy, I think," his uncertainty coupled with his admittance to being bullied often only further cemented what Maddie thought she knew. "I guess I knew that I would always have my friends, no matter what," he slowed down here, "ya, I knew that my friends would always be there for me, that- that they really cared," Maddie noted that the phantom seemed to realize something rather big here. "They care, they really care," he whispered again, a small smile on his face. Danny was surprised to find he was no longer talking about his life _before_ the accident.

As for Maddie, the more she listened, the more this was sounding a lot like suicide, with Phantom going on about the people he only now realized had cared for him. After a loaded silence in which the lights momentarily flickered, Phantom continued, this time with a small smile.

"I also had my older sister. She was bossy and nosy, but I think, somewhere, I knew she only had my best interest at heart, she cared to," Maddie was quite stunned with this bit on information. Not only that Phantom had a sister, but that he remembered his life vividly enough to know that he did. Interesting in deed.

"And your parents?" Maddie asked, very interested in what else he might remember about his past life. The change was almost instantaneous. His small smile and hopeful stare was gone before she could blink, and his face darkened considerably. Instantly Maddie knew she had stumbled upon the very reason that, despite having so many people that 'cared about him', he had decided to take his own life.

"My parents," he whispered quietly, it might have been her imagination, but Maddie could have sworn the ghost gave her a tortured stare. "I always thought my parents cared about me, but then, then The Accident happened and took all that away," Phantom looked back at the ceiling, his aura brightening and fading like a gentle tide. "It was a horrible accident. It was my own fault to, I was messing with some crap I shouldn't have been, and it put a lot more people than just me in danger," he looked softly at Maddie and gave a small smile. "There was a girl," was all he said. "She was just as curious as I was, and ten times more brave, she's the one who convinced me to check it out. She and my other best friend were there as I screamed, I think I might have begged for my life, I don't know, the whole thing is sorta' foggy. Except the pain, the pain I can remember. I think I was electrocuted to death, but it might have been any number of other things that happened in the accident,"

"Do you know how your parents felt about your death?" It was more of a test, though it did help quell some curiosity on Maddie's part. If he knew, it meant he formed very quickly after his death, which was unusual for a specter of his power, if he didn't, then there was no telling how long ago he could have died, since he could have picked up his modern clothing anytime between his death and being a wandering soul.

"No, but that's because I never checked. Like I said, I always thought they loved me, but... something changed," another dark look, accompanied by a sigh. "In all honestly, it wasn't even them. It was me, I changed, I became someth-one, someone different. They just, they didn't understand anymore. I suppose I should give them some credit, they did try to find out what was wrong... at first. But then... then they just gave up on me, I guess. No matter how bad it got, it just didn't seem to matter to them anymore. Maybe it's my fault, for waiting to long to tell them the truth, but I was afraid. Afraid of how they might react to it, even when I thought they wanted the best for me, I was always scared," Phantom accentuated this desolate speech with small glistening tears and a heartbroken out of focus stare. He looked like a wounded puppy, and Maddie found herself amazed with the ease in which he crafted his lies.

She was disgusted with how many people must have fallen for this ploy, no wonder they saw the ghost as a hero. Of course she realized he must have gotten all this from somewhere, and was most likely a very accurate description of his life, but she also knew the tears and dramatics were rather unnecessary. None of this was anything he would care about anymore.

"Why were you so afraid of them?" She asked gently, barely managing to keep the malice out of her voice. He thought about it for a second before continuing.

"My parents loved their job," he said instead, as if this offered explanation, "they loved their job a lot, so much so, that, sometimes, I think they forgot that they even had kids," another glance thrown at her, and Maddie suddenly wondered if Phantom wasn't trying to tell her something. "Me, how I had changed, to accept me as I then was would have required them to... rethink their line of work. And I was honestly afraid they would choose it over me," he sighed. Even Maddie had to feel bad for the boy. He obviously had negligent parents, and, though Maddie couldn't imagine what it was that had changed him in life that would require his workaholic parents to question their very profession, she could at least understand why he did what he did. All in all, he was lonely. Lonely in a way that couldn't be filled by friends or even a sibling. Phantom broke her out of her musings with a surprising question,

"What would you do if your son was a ghost?" He questioned. Maddie was incredibly surprised.

"What?"

"Well, you're a ghost hunter, so if you were to accept that your son was a ghost, if he was, that is, you would have to reconsider your job as well, right?" Ah, now Maddie saw it, he was trying to put her into his own situation, seemingly to find comfort, but really to pull her deeper into his lies. Despite this, she saw little harm in answering his question truthfully,

"I wouldn't love him any less, if that's what you mean, but if he were really a ghost... ghosts belong in the ghost zone, and that's where he would have to go. Naturally I would try to help him move on, but... ghosts are naturally violent creatures, who knows how long he would be able to grasp onto his humanity," she answered, saddened by the very thought. But if she was sad,then Phantom seemed crushed.

"What- what if he was a good ghost?" He asked desperately, "what if he was still, for the most part, human. Ya, what if he was really just a human with ghost powers? Powers that he used to do good things, like, save people and stuff at the expense of his own safety?" Maddie frowned, he was really reaching at straws now.

"Such a thing isn't even possible, but, I suppose, for the sake of hypothetical situations, I'll go with it. like I said before, I wouldn't love him any less for it, in fact, if he took it upon himself to shoulder that sort of responsibility... Look, Phantom, it wouldn't make a difference to me if my son were ghost, boy, or something in-between, he'd always be safe with me," Phantoms smile was quite literally glowing, and he seemed to be crying of pure joy. This charade was getting old. "Although, lets face it, my son isn't the most responsible person in the world," she laughed lightly. It was like she blew out a candle, the way Phantom reacted to that last comment. Instantly going from tearing up happy, to frustrated.

"The point is, Maddie, I never felt like I could trust them after what happened, but maybe, just maybe, I was wrong," he smiled up at her through his supposed frustration. She rolled her eyes and stood up. Phantom seemed confused at her sudden hostility.

"You really are good, I'll give you that," she said as she interlocked her hands and stretched them above her head.

"What?" Danny was extremely confused, good at what?

"You're a great actor, your emotions were spot on, although it really doesn't back up the fact that you were in an accident. Sounds a lot like suicide to me," she replied.

"You- you," Danny couldn't believe his ears, "I wasn't acting! I was telling the truth! I did not commit suicide!"

"You're lying," Maddie was quick to accuse.

Phantom's broken serenity left him, "you- you _still_ think I'm lying!? After everything I just told you! I just poured my freakn' heart and soul out to you!" Danny was horrified to realize his mother seemed pretty apathetic about it, _she didn't believe a word I said_, he realized, and for the first time he saw the blinking recording device on her hip, _she had no real intention of believing me at all, it was all just a part of her stupid research!_. Not to mention she was playing ping pong with his emotions. "Tell me, why couldn't I possibly be telling the truth Dr. Fenton!?" He bit out scathingly, and with more than a little bit of hurt coloring his tone.

"Because, Ectoplasmic scum like yourself don't feel emotion. They function on two things, their obsession, and self preservation, and if you really didn't commit suicide, you hurting yourself, and anything everything else you do, like pretending to be the hero, it wouldn't much make sense, would it?" She shot right back. Phantom stared back at her with a horrified glare,

"Pretending?! I... I nearly killed myself! I hurt myself because I wanted to, and that's really all you can say? That I'm a lying dirty creature with no regard for anyone but _it's_ self? If I was a normal teenager you would be trying to help me, you would do everything in your power, I know you would, because I know you, or at least I thought I did, but, just because I'm a ghost..." Danny was truly baffled, he simply did not understand how his mother could be so... cruel to anything with any semblance of sentience. "Do you really see me as so... low, just because I'm different?" As he said it, Spectra's earlier words bounced in his head, _'Your parents? They're after that part of you that makes you different, they want to destroy you because you're different.'_

Maddie showed no hint of emotion, this ghost was obviously playing with her head, trying to throw her off it's lies with this rant meant to appeal to her maternal instinct. The creature was using her humanity against her, what a horrible thing for it to do. She simply pretended to let every word pass over her harmlessly. The ghost stared up at her when she refused to give an answer, or even acknowledge it's serious question. All the hate and anger seemed to suddenly drain out of the phantom's system as it seemed to come to some startling revelation. It slowly locked it's startled eyes with her's, opened it's mouth, and then said ten simple words that completely sent Maddie off edge.

"You, Madeline Fenton, are a horrible person, you know that?"

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_**A/N**__: Uh, oh, Danny's in trouble now. Man, someone has to tell Maddie that there is a such thing called 'feelings' and it is okay to feel them. While they're at it, they should also add in a bit about irony..._

_Please _**Review**!


	12. Not Nice

Maddie was completely outraged, how dare he! How dare this creature speak to her like that when she was trying to do nothing more than protect this town from evil like him! She felt her cold mask melting as anger boiled to the surface. Maddie didn't say a word as she turned on her heal and stalked over to the control panel for the lab. When she got there, she turned again so that she was facing Phantom, and as soon as she made eye contact with his strong gaze, she threw her fist down on a large red button next to her. Immediately hundreds of volts of homemade 'ghost electricity' lit up the cuffs that attached the ghost to the table, and promptly flowed into him, causing him to scream at the sudden pain as he suddenly broke eye contact, violently arching his back off the table in a subconscious search for in escape. Maddie watched apathetically as sparks of slightly green electricity sporadically traveled along his body and melted into his 'skin'.

After a few seconds, she let go of the button, and he fell with a 'thud' right back onto the table, panting loudly and eyes wide and startled. When his breathing (she was still pretty confused about that one) finally slowed down, he turned to look at her, except his eyes were once again void of defiance and strength. He must have finally realized who was in charge here.

"What–" it was all the specter was able to get out before Maddie turned a dial to up the strength, and threw her hand back down on the button. He was interrupted by his own scream.

"I don't care what you _think_, you putrid protoplasm," Maddie spoke right over his _fake_ cries of agony, "you are not a real person, and so I shouldn't feel 'bad for you' or whatever you were trying to do with that silly rant of yours. You shouldn't exist, and that is just cold hard fact,". When Maddie once again let go of the button there were tears making their way down Danny's face. Not at the pain, but at the fact that he knew his mother very well, and he knew, for a fact, that she meant every single word of it. A silly rant, she called the pouring of his heart and soul 'a silly rant', as far as she was concerned, he shouldn't even exist. On the bright side, at least she was hurting him physically as well, it was a lot more painful than anything he could ever do to himself.

As his body calmed down and Maddie's hand once again came down on the button- he realized with dread she was waiting until the pain had time to slightly subside just so she could do it again- he wondered how it was he had never seen before what a horrible person his own mother really was, and how little deserving she was of those backbreaking years of his protection. Well, we would just have to see how she would do without it, and as things were going, chances were she would find out.

* * *

_**A/N**__: Short, but important and powerful I think. don't worry he he next one will be pretty long, and it might even be out before the week is up. It'll bring us back to Sam and Tuck. I would just like to remind everyone that this story is not completely in chronological order, by design. Okay, goodnight._

_**Review**__ please?_


	13. Panic

_**A/N**__: Necessary filler, yay!_

* * *

Sam yawned as she made her way back from her meeting with Tucker. For the third time in a row she found her combat boots snagging on the bottom of the annoying abomination of a dress, causing her to nearly trip. Thank goodness Tucker wasn't here to see that.

Somewhere between the sixth and seventh time it happened, she growled in frustration,

"Okay, that's it, consequences be damned. No stupid restraining order is going to keep me away from my friends," and with that she promptly ripped off the dress like a wild animal, tearing up every other piece of fabric and revealing something akin to her normal outfit underneath. It was basically her combat boots with the purple leggings she usually wore under her skirt, except since she had been wearing it under a dress, she didn't have a skirt on, just an extra long black tang top. She also pulled her hair out of its annoying bun and fluffed it around her head. She was going to be grounded for a month for ruining that dress, she realized as she left it's tattered remains out on the street, but she couldn't bring herself to care. It was a rotten piece of blackmail anyway, she reasoned. Threatening to put a restraining order on both her friends unless she wore only cloths they approved off. B.S.

However, Sam had only stormed away a couple of feet before she turned around with a sigh. Just because she didn't want to wear the dress, didn't mean some small naked girl in Africa didn't. The dress itself was no longer salvageable, but the cloth was thick and could probably be sown into three or four different dresses for smaller girls. She slowly picked up the scattered remains, reveling in the chilly darkness. It was now somewhere around three in the morning, as her meeting with Tucker had lasted roughly half an hour, and she was about thirty minutes into the forty minute scenic route home, scenic being the one that passed Fentonworks. She knew that, illogically, just seeing his house would help to quell her suppressed fears, and so it was worth the extra walk.

Suddenly, an extra strong burst of wind blew the largest piece of the pink fabric straight into a dark alleyway, Sam followed it with no more than a thought. So maybe that wasn't the smartest thing to do, but because she hung out with a boy who was constantly looking for a place to hide, she was rather familiar with the alleys on this side of town. Which, now that she thought about it, actually just made it worse, considering she knew for a fact this alley was nothing more than a dead end. However, Sam, ever the stubborn one, stormed on, determined to catch the run away threads.

Lightly quickening her step, she just managed to snatch the rough square of fabric right out of the air in front of her as it twirled in the wind a few feet from her face. She gave it a triumphant and self satisfied smirk, and was just about to turn and continue undisturbed on her way back home when the full moon parted from behind some clouds and casted a tiny bit of light into the dark alley, and causing something near the wall make a slight glare, before it once again disappeared into the sky.

Curiosity piked, Sam walked further in, stopping a yard or two away from the wall, which she noted seemed to be stained with something to dark to make out in the fading light, and looked down at the silver item at her feet. Slowly, and with dread coiling around her like an obtrusive fog, she bent down and lightly picked up the recognizable object. A cell phone, and not just any cell phone. Sam didn't need the red and _green_ blood on it to know exactly whose it was, even though that did give a rather obvious clue.

"Danny" she whispered, looking around and finally noting the violently cracked and chipped wall, and the fact that the substance on it looked suspiciously like dried blood. She also couldn't help but notice the overwhelming lack of Danny at the scene. He could have gone home and just dropped his phone, but something in Sam's gut told her that just wasn't the case.

Eyes growing wide with panic, she nearly dropped her best friends phone as she looked desperately through the fabric she held in her other hand for the pocket that held her own. With a tense sigh of slight relief, she managed to finally pull it out, flip it open, and press three. Speed dial.

"Tucker,".

* * *

_**A/N**__: Short, but a necessary lead up to an interesting situation. Expect a lot more from Muse 4 in the next few chapters! (If you don't know which that is, look it up on my homepage, or wait and see!)._

_I would also like to remind someone that this story isn't completely chronological where it switchers between what's happening with Maddie and Danny, and Sam and Tuck, so this is happening before Maddie started the electrocution, probably around when Danny starting to tell Maddie his story_

_**Review**__ please?_


	14. By any other name Sting just as Sweet

_**A/N**__: Next chapter as promised._

* * *

Maddie only stopped electrocuting the ectoplasmic entity when a yawn escaped her lips. She peeked a look at her watch to find that it was a little before four fifty in the morning, and she had been up since nearly seven the previous day, and even then had only had four hours of sleep. However, she was used to long days in the lab, and what she was doing was important. So while the yawn didn't get her to go to sleep, it did cause her to stop for a moment, and take in exactly what was happening. As she took in the teenage ghost, she promptly berated herself for letting anger get the best of her.

Phantom looked horrible. He was panting- more like wheezing- so hard it was causing him to hack almost as if he were choking. His eyes were half lidded, and slightly green sweat covered his clammy face, plastering his limp hair to his forehead. The sweat was so bad it actually almost looked like his face was melting. His wrists and ankles were slightly sliced from how hard he had been straining against the shackles while arching his back because of the electricity, and every now and again a part of him, like an arm or a leg or occasionally even his neck, would spasm uncontrollably,

"I-I," Maddie was at a loss for words. She had been angry, yes, but that was really no reason to go and do something so drastic! She almost felt like apologizing, not that he would ever accept an apology from her after what she just did, ghosts were grudge holding creatures.

"What?" Danny spit out venomously, he turned to make eye contact, despite the fact that he had realized by now that she pressed the button every time their eyes meet.

His eyes... They were certainly a sight to behold. The were glowing so brightly and angrily that green seemed to be spilling out of them like the after impression of neon lights. "You what? You think I'm a monster? A freak? Ya, I noticed," the air was knocked out of him by another spasm. "Well you know what?" He growled, "I don't give a crap, so why don't you just dissect me, destroy me, and be done with it?"

To be put simply, Maddie did not understand. Him hurting himself could easily be put off to the way he died, as could the rest of his behavior, however the second anyone else tried to bring him harm his instincts of self preservation should have kicked in. Right now he should be trying violently to escape or at least be threatening her. Instead he was acting like he didn't even care that someone that wasn't himself was most likely going to erase him from existence, like he really did want to be destroyed and he wanted it to happen painfully.

Again Maddie felt that far to familiar sympathy, and again she saw, instead of the ghost, the innocent child she had seen while he was unconscious. What could have possibly happened to this boy to make him actually want for her to do something like that. What scars could his past bullies and negligent parents have left in life that were so deep they would follow and affect him far into the afterlife? Suddenly Maddie found herself wondering. He must have known many a horrible person in his life, and for him to call her one... She wasn't saying he was right, but he sure did have a lot of reference to go on.

"You know, you remind me of my mother," Phantom suddenly admitted, his voice hard and disdainful.

"Excuse me?" Maddie answered, not sure how to feel about that. Based on what she knew so far about the ghost's mother, she could be pretty sure it wasn't a compliment. He continued as if she hadn't spoken.

"You're pretty work oriented, right?" He laughed, "of course you are, you'd have to be if you can destroy a ghost the same age as your own son without guilt,"

"What!?" Maddie was outraged, she stalked over to the ghost and slammed her hand down on the table, "listen, Phantom, I don't know how you know how old my son is, and I don't like it, but I assure you, I'm nothing like your mother, I know my own child and I would never put my work before him or my daughter," she growled.

"Please, your daughter practically raised herself and her brother! and when was the last time you talked with your son?"

"I talked to him just a few hours ago!"

"Really? What did you talk about?"

"Well, uh," Here Maddie lost a bit of steam, "I sent him up to his room," she answered.

"Really? That's what you're passing off as conversation? Whatever, just tell me, why did you send him to his room?" The ghost asked almost menacingly.

"He was out way past curfew... again," she grumbled disappointingly,

"Really, and do you know why?"

"I- well I..." Even more steam lost, "no," she whispered. He smiled darkly and smugly.

"Did you ask?" He asked. Maddie was outraged all over again.

"What? If course I asked!" She shot back, he gave her a disappointed stare, although she couldn't imagine why.

"Really? Then here's the big question. You told me what you said, what did he say?" Phantom challenged,

"He..." Maddie looked away. She, she didn't remember. She couldn't remember him talking at all, but he must have answered her question! The question... she never asked, she suddenly realized as she thought back to the 'conversation'. "But, but I must have asked," she whispered, "I must have," she said even lower while turning her head away.

Phantom only looked at her for a second longer before turning his head away as well, his worst fears confirmed, she really couldn't care if she couldn't even remember that she hadn't let him speak during their 'conversation'.

"That's what I thought,".

Maddie stopped her desperate thinking,

"You know what, ghost? What do you know anyway?" She was angry again. "There's nothing wrong with my relationship with my son," of course there was, but she wasn't about to admit it to this lowly ghost, she stalked away, "and even if there was, it's none of your business," and a hand came down once again on the big red button. He screamed. Maddie stopped almost immediately. That was- that was the wrong thing to do, she quickly realized. She couldn't just electrify him every time he said something she didn't like. Especially if it was kind if, sort of... true.

In a small sign of apology Maddie walked up and put her hand on the teen's arm. Normally, touching a recently electrified person is not the best of ideas, but her special 'ghost electricity', which was made completely of organic ghost remedies, like odd flowers and powders, that were bounded molecularly and then energized, was almost completely harmless to humans, and her hazmat should dispel any excess ectoplasmic contamination.

"Don't touch me," Phantom immediately tried to pull away, but the cuffs prevented that. "What's wrong with you anyway?" he growled at her when he realized he couldn't reclaim his arm. "One second you're slowly destroying me, and the next we're all cuddly?"

"Phantom, I..." Maddie almost wanted to apologize, but didn't know where to begin. This was absolutely ridiculous, he wasn't even a real person! It would probably make more sense to apologize to the cuffs. She would probably be better received by them to.

"What? You think it's funny to play 'roller coaster' with my emotions? Oh, wait, that's right, I don't have any emotions," he laughed bitterly before closing his eyes and angling his head back to the ceiling. Maddie just shook her head. Why would she even bother? He was a ghost, it was hopeless.

However, upon taking her hand off Phantom, something else caught her eyes. She literally had to peel her hand off him, and with it came gooey black blobs.

"What the–" she examined her hand closely as she walked over to her equipment table. As she walked the black slowly melted into a green, which then bubbled, melted, and dissolved. Her brain immediately put the pieces together and she quickly turned back around and headed back to the ghost. As she examined him she realized quite clearly that what she had thought was opaque sweat, was in fact melting ectoplasm. Phantom was still losing stability! How?! The raw ectoplasm should have solved that!

Danny opened his eyes and subtly looked up at his confused mother. He smiled darkly when he saw what was on her hand.

"So, you figured it out?" He chuckled.

"Figured what out? Why are you melting? The raw ectoplasm should have re-stabilized you!"

Danny found pleasure in his mothers alarm. He wasn't so naive that he would think she was so upset and horrified because he was destabilizing, he knew she was really upset that she had ruined her lab rat. He winced as he felt his form being eaten away as if by acid.

"Raw ectoplasm?" He asked, looking around her. Danny's eyes widened upon finding the empty container of ecto-dejecto on the lab table. He had to remind himself once again that she wasn't trying to save him, she only healed him because she wanted to save the human owner of the human blood. He also knew that that was exactly why the spray wasn't working. It stabilized his ectoplasm, but his human body had lost to much blood for it to compensate. His human body was dying, he could feel it. However, it would probably be fine if he could only change into it so it could get the attention it needed, or at least that would be the case if there wasn't another issue with his ghost form...

"You can't just chalk a ghost full of blood blossom and expect them to be okay," Phantom took three shaky breaths.

"Blood blossom?" Maddie repeated questioningly. Phantom nodded,

"I'd know that burn anywhere," he looked up at her, "you really don't know, do you?" Maddie was ready to retort back rather rudely, when she noticed how pale and clammy the ghost looked. He coughed.

"What are blood blossoms, ghost?" She asked.

"Old ghost remedy from the 1600's. They used to circle witch burnings with the flowers so no spirits could rescue the burning women. Powerful stuff, supposedly it's like a primitive 'Specter Deflector', but if you asked me it was much worse, glad they don't usually use that anymore,"

At this Maddie only had one thought... The sixteen hundreds?! The way he spoke about it was as if he were actually there, he even said that most people didn't use it anymore, as if he was there when it was abundant. Phantom's been around since the sixteen hundreds? Hmm, older than he looks. Then she remembered what the electricity was.

"Organic ghost remedies," she mumbled under her breath in realization.

"What's the matter? Realized you just melted your test subject?" Phantom asked. This ghost was really getting on her nerves. "Or maybe you feel kind of bad for murdering a teenager, but just remember, I'm a ghost, so it doesn't really count as murder, just total annihilation," he mocked.

"Be quite, you ectoplasmic manifestation of post-human consciousness," she growled.

"What! You're slowly poisoning me, that's just 'cold hard fact'. Not as sweet a line when you're on the receiving end, is it?" He shoot back.

"Shut up!" Maddie completely lost her cool, and before she knew it her hand came down on the (physically) young ghost's face with a muffled smack. The horrible sound echoed painfully in the empty lab. The worst part was that the fact that his ectoplasm was soft and mailable because of its destabilization, causing her hand to mold it like wet play-doh. The left side of his face slipped forward as if dragged across the rest, creating horrible deformity, which promptly started to melt away.

"Oh, God," Maddie whispered, bringing her hands up to her mouth.

"What's the matter, Maddie? Can't take the heat? Then maybe you should get out of the kitchen," the melting boy taunted, and Maddie's ashamed to say that that was exactly what she did. She couldn't watch this anymore. She couldn't watch him melt and bubble into nothing, she couldn't watch a sentient being die, not when he seemed so... human.

Maddie turned tail and ran. She ran straight up the basement stairs,the door swinging behind her. She ran through the kitchen, up the stairs, and straight to her and her husband's bathroom, where she promptly threw up into the toilet bowl as she imagined him slowly and painfully boiling away into a puddle of goop. She imagined his eyes would be the last to go, those big lively eyes staring accusingly at the empty space where she had stood until they to melted and dissolved onto nothing more than a small left over puddle of green. All because of her.

* * *

_**A/N**__: No, Danny! Will Danny be above to get out of this in time, or will Sam and Tuck figure it out soon enough? Find out next time on Total, Dram– oh, wait, wrong exit. Oops._

_In other news, Danny is becoming a bit machotistic. That's not good, it's also not good that he's slowly melting into a pile of goop, and his human half is wasting away... Also, Maddie is having more mood swings than a pregnant lady, how will she deal with this newfound... is that guilt?_

_I'd also like to give a shout out to the guest that reviewed under the name __**guest**__ at 7:01 am. One of you're three guesses is almost right, I but I won't say which, I'd just like to say that they really got my creative juices flowing._

_**Reviews**__ are appreciated!_


	15. Up, Up, and Away

_**A/N**__: I don't know why I'm so proud of this chapter, nothing super important happens, but for some reason I am._

_Also, I'd like to dedicate this chapter and upcoming chapter 16 to _**iB3LIEVE**_, who not only gave me the inspiration for these two chapters, but also, in doing so, an entirely new plot line that will expand the story way past what I had originally planed. So, finally, just for you, Tucker and Sam finding out._

_Here's to hoping you enjoy reading this just as much as I enjoyed writing it! Muse 1 and 6, center stage!_

* * *

Sam watched in dread as Tucker surveyed the scene.

"What do you think happened?" She questioned, careful to keep the apprehension out of her voice.

"I don't know," he was careful to keep his voice from shaking.

Normally the two friends wouldn't be as thrown off by the scene as they were, they were plenty used at this point to Danny getting injured and even disappearing, occasionally for days on end. Really this shouldn't have been to big of a deal, and they should go to Fentonworks in the morning, and, if he wasn't there, use the 'Boo'merang to track him down. It was what they would usually do. Except, and Tucker knew that Sam felt it to, there was something off about it this time. Something that sent their instincts on edge, something was very very wrong. That coupled with the conversation they had had not two hours before... It was more than enough to put both of them on edge.

"Tucker, I don't like this, it feels..." Sam was having trouble with her wording, she wasn't used to feeling so... vulnerable. Especially in front of someone else.

"Wrong. I know," he answered. Neither of them faced the other as they just stared at the broken bloodied wall. "We should go to Fentonworks. Check in on Danny," Tucker admitted, even though he knew exactly how the suggestion would be received.

"Tucker, you know we can't climb in through his window anymore since his parents put the bars up, and it's almost three thirty in the morning. How do you think we'll be received if we just knock on the front door?"

"I-"

"With a hell of a lot of questions, that's how! How in the world are we going to explain to Mr. and Mrs. Fenton why we just randomly want to check in on their son at this ungodly hour? Not to mention what they will do if they find out he isn't there! Don't you think that'll be the smallest bit suspicious?!" Sam was now in panic mode as she finally turned to face her friend and proceeded to throw out all her worries at a mile a minute accompanied by large hand gestures. Tucker turned to face her as well.

"Don't you think I know that, Sam!? I just thought Danny's life was a little more important than his secret!"

"His parents are ghost hunters, Tucker, it very well could be the same thing!" They were both taken aback by this comment.

"You- you don't really believe that... Do you?" He questioned incredulously. Despite Danny's fear on the matter, Tucker and Sam had always been adamant on the fact that his parents would never harm him. Sam quickly deflated.

"I don't know," she admitted, bringing her hand down across her face, "and at the moment I can't say I care, I'm just worried, and I don't want to make this situation anymore stressful than it already is, for us, the Fentons, or Danny," Sam admitted.

With her calm admission, Tucker to lost his anger,

"You're right, arguing isn't going to do anything, but it doesn't change the fact that we have no clue where Danny is," he turned his head away to look at the street.

Sam sighed, whenever she thought of Danny she could swear she could feel electricity race down her spine. Not the normal sparks she got when she thought of her blue eyed best friend either, but real painful electricity. And screams, she was sure she could hear screaming... _**(1)**_

Because Sam was so lost in her thoughts, she didn't see as Tucker's face brightened considerably, or when he whipped out his PDA and started mashing buttons. However, she did notice when said device was mashed right in front of her face.

"What? Tucker!" She stumbled backwards.

"How opposed are you to vandalism?" was the only response as he brought the electronic device back into his own space bubble.

"Excuse you?" was the answer. He pointed to the light post bordering the street. She followed his hand.

"What- oh," she exclaimed as she saw what he was pointing at. The street in question was one of those intersections that formed a 'T' instead of a full cross, but it did have a stop light, and perched on the light post, facing that light, was a video surveillance camera.

Sam smiled to, until she realized one small problem.

"Tucker, that camera is facing _away_ from the alley," she pointed out.

"Well, yes, and no," he started to walk towards the post, and Sam followed, "You see, cameras like those are expensive for the city to put up, and so, to protect from vandalism, they usually..." he slowed down as he started circling the post, "put up some sort of counter security, right..." he smiled, "There!" he announced triumphantly, pointing at a smaller much less noticeable camera directly under the larger one, and pointing in the opposite direction. The opposite direction being, of course, straight at the alley.

"Tucker, you're a genius!" Sam smiled.

"I know," he grinned smugly. Sam rolled her eyes.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Hack it!" He shuffled nervously.

"Well, um, you see, I tried, and then I realized something sort of important," Sam didn't like where this was going, "the city board is cheap and constructed of old fossils who wouldn't know good tech if a robot bit them in the nose, well them and Vlad,"

"and..."

"The cameras are real honest-to-goodness film. If we want the tape, we're going to have to go get it,"

Sam looked up at the at least twenty feet high pole.

"Tucker,"

"Yes, Sam?"

"I take it back,"

**D**

...:::-•-:::...

**P**

Tucker stared up at Sam as she shuffled her way up the light post.

"You okay up there?"

"Shut... up," she managed through the screaming of her muscles. Ever try climbing up a straight vertical surface with no footholds? Not fun. Sam took another labored breath as she shuffled the cloth she had tightly gripped in her hands up another few inches, and then took a careful step up the pole on her bare feet.

She had wrapped the largest piece of cloth from her dress around the pole, and was using it to shimmy herself up, it may seem difficult, and it was, but still a hell of a lot easier than just using her hands. Lucky it was an old post that was rusted near the top and had an uneven surface, or this would be near impossible, and thank the high heavens the dress wasn't made of slippery silk or smooth satin. The rest of the cloth and her beloved combat boots lay in a pile at the bottom.

Sam yelped slightly as her slightly sweaty feet slipped a tiny bit on the pole. She quickly rearranged them and paused for a moment to let her heart calm down. She winced as she felt chips of rusted metal dig into her feet. Owww. She really hoped those didn't get infected. _The things I'd do for Dann_y, she thought to herself as she continued her agonizingly slow, tiring, and don't forget painful, journey up to the camera.

Tucker looked up at the panting Sam. It was times like this he was jealous of Danny's ghostly abilities. If he were here they would already be halfway through watching that camera tape. On the other hand, he had to admire Sam's determination. She was only a couple of feet from the thing, and he could see sweat dripping back down to the ground every few seconds, creating a small puddle under her. It was actually pretty amazing how determined she was.

"Lovebirds," he mumbled as she finally made it to the top.

Very carefully Sam transferred her grip on the fabric all to one hand. She then carefully reached up and, all with the other hand, managed to pry the camera off the post enough to reach in and take out the VHS tape. This was full out vandalism and thievery, they were going to get in so much trouble for this.

As Sam held the tape, both her and Tucker quickly realized there was absolutely no way she could climb back down with it in her hands, and it was to big to fit in her mouth, not to mention it would probably be better not to get it wet.

"Tucker!" Sam shouted, "I'm going to toss it down to you, you better catch it, butterfingers!" Aforementioned boy gulped dramatically. The nickname was well earned, with dread he remembered the whole incident on the train with Freakshow's staff... "Right under me? okay? Tell me when you're ready, I can't look down," Sam informed him.

Tucker nodded, and then remembered what she just said about not being able to see him.

"Right," he cleared his dry throat and positioned himself, "okay, Sam, go ahead,"

"Please please don't let me regret this," Sam prayed as she gently tossed down the tape.

Tucker tried to catch it, really, he did, but there was a reason he was in robot fight club and not football. His fingers just grazed the end, sending it slightly into the air, he used the other hand and again just managed to touch it. He fumbled with the thing for about five seconds before his hand pushed it to far for him to reach. His eyes widened as the tape fell, and fell, and fell... right onto the soft pile of cloth and two socks Sam had left at the bottom. He breathed out a sigh of pure relief.

"Did you get it?" Sam was almost afraid to ask.

"Um, yah, I got it!" he guiltily shouted back as he picked up the tape, none the worse for wear.

Sam mimicked the sigh of relief as she navigated her way back down to the ground.

The return journey was much quicker, and she soon found herself replacing her socks and boots, ignoring the blistering pain of metal splinters, as Tucker examined her hard earned prize.

"It's set to tape over itself every 12-hours, so providing Danny was here after..." he paused to check the time on his PDA, "three forty nine in the afternoon, which is a pretty safe bet, whatever happened should be here," Tucker hypothesized.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sam grabbed Tucker's arm and pulled him along to her house.

"Wait! Sam! We have to go to my place to burn it into a DVD!" He pointed out. After all, who owned VCR players anymore?

Going to Tucker's would add at least another twenty minutes to their journey. Never had Sam been so grateful her grandmother was into the old fashioned and outdated.

"Don't worry about that, I've got it all under control"

Tucker wasn't sure what to make of the triumphant glint in her eyes.

* * *

_**A/N**__: Well, now things are getting interesting. Will the tape work? If so, how will the two friends react to what it's about to show them? Will the watch it in enough time to save Danny? Will they be able to help him at all, or just make things worse? I know, but I'm not telling._

_**(1)**__ Original concept idea in which Danny and Sam had a psychic connection, the only remains of it they left in the show were the two of them having similar thoughts and occasionally doing or saying the same thing at the same time. I watered it down nearly to the point it is used in the show, except with Sam just barely feeling hints of the electric torture Danny is currently going through. (Remember this is happening before Maddie ran from the room, but after he 'insulted' her)_

_So, please **Review**!_


	16. Uncertainty and Blame Go Hand in Hand

_Like the last chapter, this one is also dedicated to _**iB3LIEVE**_, thanks for the inspiration! In your honor, part two of 'Tucker and Sam find out'_

* * *

Sam and Tucker got to Sam's house in record time. Sam barely paused for doors, or walls, as she pulled and dragged Tucker straight down a steep ramp and two hallways into a small dark room. It was just big enough to fit two people comfortably, and had a nice medium sized flat screen hooked up to, you guessed it, a VCR player.

"Low tech, man" Tucker commented. "But I can respect that," he quickly added after a death glare from Sam.

"It's my grandmothers private 'cinema', sometimes we watch old movies here together," she told him as she took the tape and loaded it into the player, setting the tv to the correct settings.

She and Tucker then stepped back, taking seats not five feet from the screen, both to eager to see what would play to go any farther.

Nothing but empty street.

"Umm, I better fast forward," Tucker pointed out, and he took the remote and did just that.

While Tucker was looking for the right time, Sam took off her combat boots and socks, her feet were killing her! She winced as she looked at the nicks and scrapes covering them, carefully she pulled out a piece of rusted metal and a trickle of blood came out. That was not good. She realized she really should have taken the bits out before running all the way home. Also, wasn't there some sort of disease associated with rusted metal? She should really put some disinfectant on this...

"Found it!" Tucker exclaimed. Snapping her head up to the screen, she saw Danny's ghost form rocketing into the alley, a trail of tears following behind him like sparkles in the nights sky. In the top right corner it read 23:18. _Eleven eighteen pm_, Sam translated from military time in her head.

Danny landed on the concrete on all fours, panting for a bit, before frantically crawling into a sitting position with his arms hugging his knees in the back corner. His white hair stood out like a beckon amongst all the dark litter and trash piled up around him. Sam noticed with dread that the wall behind him was clean and whole.

Upon closer inspection the two friends watching could see he had just come from fighting a ghost. He was covered in scratches and scrapes, and seemed to have an ache in his left arm. Sam's heart broke as she watched him just sit there and cry for a while.

"He's not that hurt," Tucker pointed out. He was trying so hard to make those tears physical and not emotional, but failing miserably.

"I know," Sam whispered back. She didn't like where this was going. As they watched his aura seemed to just... dim.

"Did you see that!?" Pointed an alarmed Sam. Tucker just nodded.

"You know, we haven't really seen him up close as Phantom lately, but is it just me or is the light surrounding him, even before it dimmed just then, a lot less bright than it was a few months ago?" He added.

"What does it mean?" Sam asked worriedly.

"I think... I think it means we're bad friends,"

Sam looked away.

The two friends watched as Danny moved his hands so that he was pulling on his hair, a tortured expression on his face. Suddenly, in a move so fast neither of them really saw it, Danny had stood, turned, and punched the wall with what, though the tape had no sound, was obviously a scream. The tears were still flowing, and, remembering the blood they saw on the wall, Tucker and Sam suddenly got very bad feelings in their guts.

"He wouldn't," Sam couldn't help but whisper, remembering what she had told Tucker just a few hours prior. That didn't stop what was happening on screen, and through, and despite, their horror, neither one of them could look away.

They watched as he punched the wall again and again, and a bright green poured out of his knuckles, yet he didn't seem to care. He did suddenly slow down after a while, but that was followed by two distinct rings washing over him. Tucker couldn't help but note how dim they were. To both bystanders horror, Danny _Fenton_ now stood where Danny _Phantom_ had been, pouring out dark red blood. Somehow this was even worse to watch. Not only had they know Danny Fenton for a lot longer than Phantom, but the red blood, the universal alarm bell, made it all the more real.

Sam felt her breath start to catch as she watched her best friend's anger and sadness being displayed at its peak right in front of her in the exact way she never thought possible. How could she have missed this? Hadn't she just finished saying how sure she was that it wasn't possible! How could Danny do this to them? To himself! It only got worse.

Tucker watched in horror as his best friend for life stopped his brutal assault on his hands and wrapped them around himself in a mocking hug with a deformed sob. Fenton once again turning to Phantom in the process. It went without saying he had never seen Danny so hurt. They used to be like brothers, they shared everything. Or at least he thought they did. The hands Danny had wrapped around himself suddenly turned to claws as the boy on screen pressed brutally into his shoulders until the green blood once again appeared. Tucker was almost certainly going to be sick as he watched the flesh on Danny's arms rip open following his hands' paths. Danny's head was angled up and he could just make out the fact that his eyes were closed and pooled with tears in the picture of mental torture.

Speaking of pools of liquid, that's exactly what the ectoplasm was doing as it swirled around his cuts, coming out in globs and hitting the ground with, despite the silence, the two knew to be sickening _plops_. When the ground around him was so covered in green his boots were stained with it, Phantom started to sway lightly, suddenly turning back into Fenton.

They could tell he hadn't meant to, because he looked down in alarm at his slightly healed cuts and red blood. He started yelling and shaking his head violently as he ripped and tore mercilessly on his human flesh. They could only watch in horror, eyes glued to the screen, as he tore at his sleeves and the collar of his shirt ripping at himself until large volumes of maroon poured out uninhibited. They watching it drip down his arms like honey, or from his finger tips like thick water. Sam threw her face into her hands as tears started to spill out. Still she peaked at the tv from between her fingers. Tucker was to stunned to even move.

Suddenly Danny's hands fell to his side and his knees collapsed from under him, leaving him kneeling with his forehead leaning against the bloodied broken wall. It might have been crazy, but Tucker and Sam where positive that they saw his shoulders rise in a laugh with the corners of a smile just visible. It was only when he slumped slightly to the side that Sam realized what was happening.

"Blood loss," she whispered with horror. It may have seemed obvious, but her mind was somewhat preoccupied. Danny managed to latch back on to his ghost form just in time for his aura to completely go out as he made a splash in his own blood. His hair no longer stood out as covered as it was with dark blood and dirt, and his form was drowned in darkness to the point it was only barely visible as a dark outline.

Sam retreated back into her hands, tears easily escaping from between them. Tucker awkwardly scooted closer and put an arm around her, pulling her to his chest where she latched onto his shirt and started to really cry. It was deeply disturbing, Tucker had never seen Sam cry, although he suspected that Danny had. Considering he was on the verge of doing the same, though, that wasn't really on the forefront of his mind.

"Why didn't he change back?" He wondered out loud.

"Hmm?" Sam sniffled.

"When he... passed out, why didn't he change back to Fenton? And why did his ghostly light go out?"

Sam took a broken breath.

"T-tucker, what- what if, he didn't pass out?" she let the meaning of her words wash over him.

"No," he whispered.

"That's a lot of blood, a lot more counting the ectoplasm," she pointed out as her grip on his shirt tightened.

"No, no, then what happened to the body?" he asked harshly, "he had to have left, he couldn't have... have died!"

"Fast forward," she managed between tears. Tucker grabbed the remote, jostling Sam rather roughly as he did, and pressed fast forward.

23:52. He found it hard to believe they had been watching for about forty minutes, it felt like both a life time and no time at all.

00:10

00:40

1:28

1:57

2:19- play. Tucker saw light and movement. The horror on his face only grew as he watched with disgust as rats surrounded the body only to be chased away by a glowing green raccoon. The animal had the imprint of a large tire running across its stomach, which was slightly flattened. After chasing the other animals away from Danny, it started to paw at and lick the ectoplasmic body. Tucker swallowed a baby barf and quickly pressed fast forward again.

2:30

2:48

3:0- wait!

He rewinded back to 2:30.

"Oh, no," he whispered. Sam followed his gaze, her sentiments exactly. They watched as the blue HAZMATed figure pounced into the alley. She looked at the body for a moment before, at least, chasing away the raccoon and other rodents. They both held their breaths in terror as she pointed her weapon at their best friend, and, after a loaded second, slumped in small relief as she put it away. They watched as she pulled out some sort of cube device and sucked Danny into it, along with the ectoplasm and most of the red blood that had bonded to it. She then walked away, leaving behind the phone Sam later found.

Just in case, Tucker continued to fast forward until Sam herself entered the camera's vision in her dress, and then the screen went dark. Sam looked up to see he had pressed the power button. Tears were running down his face.

So ended the worst forty five minutes of their short lives. They held each other, both searching for comfort neither could give. The pitch black room hid them as they started to speak.

"Do you think he's..."

"I don't know, even if he wasn't when it ended... Mrs. Fenton got to him hours ago,"

"Maybe he changed back before she could... do anything,"

"What if she did it anyway?"

"... She wouldn't,"

"How do you know?"

"I-I just do, I've known Mrs. Fenton my whole life,"

"So did- does, so does Danny, and he still doesn't trust her with the secret,"

"I- I, he's paranoid, remember the whole reality gauntlet thing? They accepted him then, why not now?"

"That was months ago, a lot can change in a few months, it wasn't until a bit after that that Danny really started to act differently anyway,"

Silence.

"God, how did we miss that?" Continued the same voice. "We're supposed to be his best friends! How could we leave him alone like that! We just let ourselves grow apart. Let his reclusiveness become normal, how could we!?"

"How could she?" Came a whispered reply.

"What?"

"Like you said, Danny's known his mother his whole life. She saw him everyday while we didn't. How could she miss something like this?"

"Mayb–"

"No! There's no excuse!" One of the forms stood up in a rage, "She's his mother! She should have seen it! Lets face it, it's not the first time they neglected him in favor of ghost hunting!"

"What are you talking about?" In an ever so small voice.

"How do you think we've been able to hide his secret so easily for so long?! How many times have we used ghosts as an excuse to get them off his back? Danny and I have been friends for a long time, and he's always been pretty clueless, but I always saw things he didn't, things that didn't seem to important at the moment. But now... they're negligent for goodness' sake!"

"You don't think maybe you're over reacting. This is our fault to,"

"Don't you think I know that?! We should have been there for him! But if you saw what I did you wouldn't think they were any less negligent than I do. You must know there are some things Danny just can't share with you because you're–"

"What? Because I'm what?"

"Uhh, um, a vegetarian?"

"What in the world does that–"

"You know what, forget it! This isn't about your feelings! He can't share some things with you because you're bull headed, fiercely independent to the point it sometimes makes everyone around you feel like their problems are to mainstream and small, and yes, because you're a girl! Happy!?"

No reply.

"The point is, what he doesn't share with you, those are the things I hear! After all, Danny needs to vent to someone, he's not good at being alone," a glance toward the direction of the darkened screen, "obviously,". He fell back to the couch, head in hands.

After another loaded moment of silence the other form stood up in a rush.

"What the hell are we doing!?"

"We-"

"I'll tell you what we're doing!" She said while rubbing away tears "we're wasting time standing around crying like a bunch of saps and trying to pin blame somewhere. I won't stand for it! I refuse to believe Danny's dead! We are going to march over to Fentonworks right now and make him wake up! I don't care what kind of condition he's in, he's not getting away from me this easily!"

"Sam–"

"No, Tucker. Right now I don't care if it's our fault, his parents' fault, or the sun's fault for shining to brightly, we are going to get Danny and he's going to be okay!"

With that she stuffed her torn up feet into her boots as best she could in the pitch darkness, fumbled around until she found Tucker's arm, and pulled him out of the room, making a beeline for Mr. and Mrs. Fenton's lab.

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_**A/N**: Well then... May god help anyone who stands in Sam's way... even Danny. Speasking of which, what is he up to? Still melting? Only one way to find out, see you next chapter!_

_Also, I'd like to warn everyone that, with school starting tomorrow,my updates will become much less frequent. I simply will not have the time to a update once a week, and the break between this chapter and the next will probably be especially long, sorry!_

_Please **Review** and tell me what you think!_


	17. Abandonment

_**A/N**__: Okay,so a little late, but you know... school. ;-P Killing creativity since before you or I could even talk properly, much less write. See that's the problem, they get to you before you have really creativity, and they attempt to squish it at the source before you even know what's happening, and then before you know you're stuck at a mediocre desk job. It's conspiracy I tell you, conspiracy! ;-D_

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Danny apathetically watched his mother's rapidly disappearing figure with little surprise. She couldn't face the fact that she was destroying a teenage ghost anymore than she could face the thought that she was destroying her own son.

Danny remembered all those times when she had made him feel so small with her lack of attention, her and his father both. Things that he thought little of at the time, like when they tacked over his preschool finger painting on the fridge with a list of possible ghost remedies, or missed his kindergarten parents and children tea party because they were checking out a supposed haunting. Things that were just so wrong, like when he had wandered around the house for hours in the third grade because they went chasing a ghost right around dinner time and forgot he was home since Jazz was at a slumber party.

Times when he needed someone, such as fifth grade when he suddenly found out he was a loser that didn't really belong with any one group, thank god he had Tucker and Sam or he didn't know what he would have done back then. Sixth grade, the first time he was ever beat up or stuffed in a locker. Ninth grade when he first got his powers in their lab with _their_ dangerous equipment that _they_ kept in the basement, and he went from geek to freak. Finally and most recently, tenth grade when he was so stressed and down on himself that he was dying a little inside every time he walked into the house, and neither even bothered to ask what was wrong.

Danny thought of every instance that fueled the diminishing of his self worth, those mentioned along with his intimate knowledge of the inside of every other locker in the freshmen and sophomore hallways of Casper High. The fact that the detention room had a desk that no one sat in because they just assumed he was going to. The knowledge that teachers didn't even bother to call his name anymore when they took role, and he had to remind them he was there. It was so very tempting to just let himself dissolve away into so much ectoplasmic goo. His body was bubbling and boiling away as if being dipped in lava. He could hear bubbles of his own ectoplasm popping. It took everything to stop from screaming as the burning heat ate at him. He so wanted to just stay down and let the blood blossoms do their job.

Danny glanced at the clock in the corner. Almost five in the morning. It was doubtful his human form would survive much longer if he didn't at least change back. With a deep regretful sigh, Danny pulled on his arms and legs, taking advantage of the fact that his feet and ankles and hands and wrists were melted  
enough to slip right through the cuffs. On his depleted energy he managed to navigate himself into a sitting position. As soon as he did he concentrated heavily on solidifying his body as best he could, sucking up most of the ectoplasm that was slowly leaking from him. He smiled lightly at the small victory of managing to, literally, pull himself together. He knew it had been a risk to let himself melt so much without even trying to keep his form, but he needed a way out of these cuffs, and the fact that he was destabilizing provided a perfect opportunity.

On the other hand, the fact remained that he was weak beyond measure. He slipped off the table and hobbled over to the supplies. Danny didn't know if he should be upset or relieved when he found all the ecto-dejecto from his room on the table. Yes, it meant his mother had been snooping around his room, and true it was only a temporary fix until his human body got the attention it needed, but as he sprayed himself with it and he felt himself solidifying, Danny couldn't bring himself to care.

You see, Danny realized, while he was pouring his soul out to his apathetic excuse for a mother, that he couldn't kill himself. He just couldn't do that to the people who really did care about him, namely Sam, Tucker, and Jazz.

On the other hand, he also found all that self loathing and angst from never thinking he was good enough being redirected. His depression changed to anger with a single realization. Those feeling's weren't his fault. There was nothing wrong with him. It wasn't his fault that they forgot about him in favor of ghosts. It wasn't his fault he was so under appreciated. It was theirs.

His teachers, his peers, and yes, his parents- all those people who made him doubt his very worth, doubt his will to live, doubt who he was. It was their fault. They thought he was nothing, well, Danny promised himself they would find out just how much they really needed him.

All of Amity Park would find out just how well they would fare without the protection of Danny Phantom.

At the moment Danny came to this decision, the door to the lab busted open with a boom and two bodies came tumbling down the stairs with twin cries of

"Danny!"

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_**A/N**__: Okay, so not the longest chapter ever, but ah *shrug*, better this than no update at all. So be honest, how many of you saw that coming (Danny giving up ghost hunting)? I really actually want to know. If you saw it coming, at what point did you figure it out? If not, what do you think of the twist?_

_**Please**__ Review and tell me what you think!_


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